"Original"

• Elena Ilic, Grade 9, Mt Lawley Senior High School
• Poetry
• 2021

Finalist in the 'Play On Words 2021' competition

I will not write about Covid-19
My hands have been aching, my mind has been breaking but;
I will not write about my teenage dreams
Somebody better will phrase it more intricately letter by letter
So I'm left itching to talk about something I actually want to
Nevertheless I see my predicament; everything I say will be a reenactment
Originality is scarce, especially when lockdown made it easy to imitate
Rarely do I find a perspective worthy of being critiqued by a collective
Myriads of ideas pass but it seems the avant-garde is guarded by a tall fence
And so, out of spite, I will not talk about Covid-19 nor my goals nor my dreams
Latently, defiantly, I’ll avoid the common denominator of hope among chaos
Internally, I feel surrounded by prodigies who leave everyone dumbfounded
Truth be told, I couldn’t pinpoint one singular thing I’ve managed to say
You are fooled by prognostics of ‘originality'; this poem is just acrostic.