Adult – First Prize
REFLECTIONS
ON MEMORY - TRIGGERS
Return
to Java 1985
By Hugo
de Waal
. You’d see the charcoal
far down the road and hear
tok! tok! of hollow
rapped bamboo. “Bamiiii! Satai
ajammm!” Vendor’s cry and
hot
spiced charred chicken scent
drift up the hill. I smell it
still, slumbering sense
soft stirred on warm sharp shadowed
moonlit nights and hear and see.
*
On this low wall, where
I sat then, I feel the post
war world recede; trees
grow back child’s eye high,
cars fade,
streets clear, crickets trill.
Wait!
Still.
Wait, still, for the ghost
of the tok tok man, moonlit
wajang puppet shaped.
Nothing.
Just this dead
surface, live volcano hint
of hidden dread.
Wait.
That veranda! There!
Those soldiers’ silhouettes
spell
menace, detonate
long buried time bomb terror,
blasting shrapnel memories.
I’m there, brother’s
hand
gripped white knuckle tight;
mother
stands calm, babe in arms,
dress clinging wet,
lashed by rain and
Jap staccato lost face rage.
Adult – Second Prize
Maud
By
Mary Shave
In the air of blue morning
You are slowly walking
We see
A thin willow twist
Bent against the chill
An aged ethereal figure
Head bowed in prayer
To the path beneath your feet
You see
A face soft and tender
With eyes of ivy green
Young, straight back and body lean
You feel
A hand holding yours
The warm wrap of love embracing
You hear
His laughter and his voice
With words that pull you in
And knot you with desire
You smell
His scent
His youthful perfume
You taste
For just a while
The wine of time gone by
A casket memorised
We see
A nameless face
With no past to portray
You are too old
No time for your stories untold
Adult – Third
Prize
Catching Childhood
By Sue Sawyer
It’s
like a distant smell
But
hard to define.
It’s
like old photos,
Fuzzy
and blurred.
It’s
a memory.
A
memory of a once.
A
time when something was special.
Not
always fond, but out of the ordinary.
You
try to pull it back
To
enjoy its’ company,
But
it writhes away from you.
You
grapple with its’ edges,
But
it moves just out of touch.
It
tantalises you with its nearness.
No
matter how hard you try to grasp
It
comes closer and then dissipates
Into
vapour.
You
are left wondering if you really did recall,
Or
if the mind was tricked into self belief.
Just
when your psyche was safe
It
lurks and leaps at you
Leaving
you with an anxious curiosity,
With
an after taste of something
Bitter-sweet.
