This poem was written by Year 11 student Alex McCann for the 2019 Boroondara Literary Competition.
The window is cold and it’s covered in tears
The sun and its arc keep a boy his fears
But a rainbow is see-through, it won’t hide the grey
And the night hides the light, but in dark rain can stay
And it fills up a bottle, becomes a ship’s waves
The boy, he will watch it, on wettest of days
While the storm drowns out his parent’s dull notes
Tonight he’ll find bottles for more of his boats
There’s a flower that grows beside the square glass
He pretends it’s a rose, but it’s only dew grass
He waters it twice, with rain that leaks through
He keeps it alive like his sister used to
With his bottles and boats, with his flowers and fears
The boy crouches up, through the window he peers
And he looks past the face that is there, peering back
Past his puffed lip, his right eye, bruised and black
And he hums a small tune he heard from a friend
It’s fun, when you’re little, to play, to pretend
And he watches the clouds as they meet and disperse
He thinks to himself how it could be worse
