Night Shift

• Aurian Parker, Grade 8, Lilydale District High School -
• Poetry
• 2019

Excellence Award in the 'Inspired 2019' competition

Awash in dark night, in the wake of a waning moon.
when all are asleep, I stay, I watch, my secret kept.
I listen, drown my sorrows in the darkest nights tune.
I listen, to the howl, until it's voice beneath a blanket of breeze is swept.
Sometimes I hear the voice, the voice of my predecessor.
I knew her once, in days long past when danger grew fast.
Her shivering voice, cold and afraid, shook me to my empty core.
I knew this time, as trees swayed faster and the land grew stronger, I would be the last.
I heard sad songs, of my kin long gone, having lost flight.
Lost in sights of fields of gold, where the protectors die.
I would not make it, the shift of darkness was my final night.
I would die here now, in no fields of gold, I tell no lie.
I tremble. Where is my freedom, my taste of sun. A single tear falls.
I hear them now, my home, my land, the sound of light, it beckons, it calls.