Frailty

• Annalies Steenhof, Grade 10, Covenant College -
• Poetry
• 2022

Excellence Award in the 'Unleashed 2022' competition

The cool stone beneath our bodies barely breathing.
Our minds lie open-handed close to dreaming.
But still we search and sift through the open sky.
As all our thoughts are gone, as all we do is sigh.
Our two streams of breath, released, mingle and rise.
As together we behold the heavens with awe-filled eyes.
Our souls, they soar into the great unknown
And fly to a place no bird has ever flown.
Our hands are clasped above our silent heads
Bound by the beauty and life-blood the firmament has bled.
All grows still to witness a pure and boundless expanse
When the wind barely flutters and the grass-hairs dance.
Widening the sight and the heart to hear the whispers of God.
The strains and melodies of life we long for in our blood.
A hunger we can never satisfy, fulfilled for this one heartbeat.
Seeing our true hearts’ frailty when desire and reality meet.