Leonardo Poetry Competition: Year 8 Finalists

 



They say grief is like a shadow,

Following you, mirroring taking your every move,

But I think grief is like an ocean,

Its vicious waves engulfing us when we least expect it,

Threatening to drown you in the sorrows of your own making,

 

They don’t realise how deleterious their words are,

Every sentence a constant thrashing wearing me down little by little,

Taking me over consuming me,

I can’t help feeling small scared,

I really believed they cared,

Until the tide turned, and a knife was wedged in my back,

Shattering my mind and bone taking me under,

 

They told me to ignore it,

That they were demons of my own creation,

But their words were real and struck my down like rocks,

Holding me down, holding my head under water,

 

I try to fight against the thrashing of their words in my head,

Like waves crashing against a cliff,

But they won’t stop,

Coming in stronger and stronger every day,

Flowing to every corner of my mind,

 

I try to understand them,

Try to forgive and move on,

But I am being pushed to the limit,

Running out of air, engulfed by the waves of my grief,

 

All I wanted was someone to love,

To fish me out my waves of sorrow,

But no one came,

Suddenly the sea went calm and retreated,

 

I waved my life goodbye,

And took myself to the after.

 

Sawsense Belaiche 8V


 

The disease

 

It started very small, only a few were taken by the clutches of the virus. Its long rope like arms snatching innocent souls.

 

They were imprisoned by a colossal shadow, swarmed with obsidian. Families were covered by the ash smokes of isolation.

 

The metal walls surrounding the sick, protecting the world from their infectious breath, spewing out devastating waves of the mutated illness.

 

Villages were burnt down by the fumes of the prisons from where the zombified disease was contained.

 

Towns torn apart, populations dropped like smashed flies falling to crumbled dirt.

 

 Amber Davis 8W


 

Waves of grief

 

Here comes a simple phone call,

Muttered ae a mere few words,

As your walls come falling down,

The pot of emotions has been stirred.

 

First comes denial,

A wicked thing,

To the outside it seems you don’t care,

However inside you’re burning.

 

Second comes guilt,

The time that’s lost,

Every day that’s gone,

Every minute has been lost.

 

Then comes pain,

One of the worst,

For it feels like you have been stabbed,

And you are lost forwards.

 

Next comes anger,

A fiery rage,

You scream and shout,

But nothing feels the same.

 

Soon comes depression,

A silent dagger,

You can’t remember how to smile,

Your life’s a stagger.

 

Finally comes acceptance,

A hard thing to come by,

But you can now smile,

As you wave goodbye.

 

Sanuli Weganthale Epite Athauda Gedara 8Z


 

Nausea

 

Nausea hits you like a wave.

It can be triggered by anything;

From a waft of stale milk to the sounds of the all familiar wolf whistle

It makes me feel sick.

 

There are a few things worse than finding that the bread is mouldy.

That there is nothing else to eat but the green infected sandwich.

And, no matter how far you cut around it,

There is still that taste of wet earth that lingers on the tip of your tongue.

 

But there is something worse.

 

You know it is bad when you are scared to walk alone in the dark.

When your parents won’t let you get the train home by yourself.

When you hear horrendous things happening to people and think

“That could have been me.”

 

You think more deeply into innocent comments

And discover disgusting undertones.

Things that should not be said, said

And things that should not be repeated, repeated.

 

We are all people.

We all have feelings.

We all go through things.

Be considerate.

 

Cecilia Cameron 8Z


 

Adrift… alone, lost, on my own,

A grumble, a groan,

A rumble, a moan,

Then high in the sky,

Up from the sea,

The water; it flies,

All around me,

Bending, contouring,

Like a snake in the air,

Darting out from its dark deathly lair,

Rising and rising,

High up above,

Taking flight,

As gentle as a dove,

It careers swiftly towards the land,

Then it breaks and disappears into the sand.

 

Henry Moorhouse 8W


 

 

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