Lonely Rock

• Claire Roughley, Grade 7, Bairnsdale Secondary College
• Poetry
• 2020

Excellence Award in the 'The Inside Story 2020' competition

Overlooking the sea,
Veiled by a cloak of mist
A statue, once a man, gives a wordless plea.
Seldom does anyone visit,
Yet patiently he waits.
Laden with moss, body stiff and rigid,
Stone eyes glimpsing fragments
Of the alluring world around him.
Accompanied by the everlasting silence
Human heart still beating.
As his body turns to stone
The moments are fewer, fleeting.
He dreads the day
When his heart will cease to pulse
And his human consciousness
Will gradually drift away.