Year 12

• Jonathan Ali, Grade 12
• Poetry
• 2012

From the shores of Cronulla,
A new adversary appears.
Tides of blue, erode the green
Of Sefton High’s
Year seven dream.

Waves of new pupil,
Fill the vacant void
Of the nameless numbers,
HSC students
Were called.

The ride dawdles,
The foreboding coast awaits,
Drawing each wave fastidiously.
Two thousand and twelve,
It calls up.

Now. Looking back
From the top of F-block,
Everything is blue.
You see them jumping in
A new front, after a new,
But rarely so, do you see
That amplitude kept
All the way through.

As I sail the flags,
To a half-mast.
Ghosts of our predecessors,
Rain whispers down:
“There is green beyond the shore!”
Pouring intensity
To the life before.

The HSC nears,
But neither the anxiety,
Nor the fears,
Shall frazzle my ambition –
My dream–
To continue as planned,
Pass this island,
And on towards
The Promised Land.