Robbers

• Emma Dempsey, Grade 11, Kenmore State High School -
• Poetry
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Write Along 2018' competition

Kaleidoscopes of greys and violets and dismal blues,
A sky that was a dazed canvas of nothingness,
And water so murky, haunted by the soft weeping of the trees.
His mind a neurochemical disaster waiting to happen,
He'd fallen for the state of a whim in a Shakespearean contrivance.
Toxins danced out from rolled paper
Hungry to coax he who begrudgingly surrender
To him, reverence was saying prays by bringing carcinogenic sticks to lips.
A throat filled with spider webs, words trapped just above his ribcage,
A thick and despicable weave of lies wouldn't allow the trespass of gospel
but rolled deceit from his tongue so naturally, somewhat robotically.
Goblins and dwarves stamped on his mind, hand in hand
laughing with glee as vulgarity spiralled, bouncing from each wall in his head.
And as butterflies twisted his insides and tied his stomach in knots
the pain became a rather dull and numb feeling,
glazed eyes allowed the winged and fluttering beasts their amusement.