Poetry New Zealand Yearbook Student Poetry Competition Winners 2021

yesterday when I stopped A response to ‘Shack’ by Murray Edmond by the side of the road I thought of a word it's a rickety word placed amongst the snow coated tussocks that protrude like slices of carrot cake. it's a cold word made hard and sharp and left half done it's a lonely word that never saw Santas' surprises and giggling puree it's a grey word ironed in shackles and made sick from the language thrown around in it it's an unstable word creaking like demolition timber taking after Lear and Edmund But it's a delicious word that maybe you should just hide in that open doorway at the back of your throat — John Pain, Mountainview Highschool 19