Think candescent.
The way light from a hidden source
dances across this simple table,
forks, plates, a single bowl,
holding fruit, while the artist holds us captive
by the white of our eye,
strokes of blue, orange, purple,
trapped in the blank of the table sheet
and colours’ hearts beat, open their throats,
cloudy ice melting on the tongue,
the sweet perfume of summer fruits.
Think ailment
being in a room, this uneasy,
so perfect, yet everything off balance,
objects and shadows, seeping together
that table, threatening to overthrow
its contents onto the ground
shards of glass, bruised apples, squashed pear
at your feet.
The artist’s wife lets out a gasp
in the white of the walls, the figure
shuffles out of focus.
Think gleam,
the next time you open your eyes,
notice at how your eye works
peripheral vision,
how we see everything at once,
yet nothing at the same time.
Embrace it. The ambiguity
light is a figure, that holds things,
yet lets the smallest thing slip away.
How the table quivered slightly
and how the bowl held fear against
the white walls
with vermillion shadows.
Darcy was awarded first prize for ”Overcoming grief in the form of birds‘. ‘Think White’ was originally placed second by Fiona during the blind assessment of the entries. However the rules do not permit a poet to win more than one prize.
Darcy Monteath
Year 10, Logan Park High School