Macleans College Poetry Competition 2022

Overall Winner:

Raindrops
Guntaas Oberoi

Remember when we were five?
and we'd watch rain thundering down from the sky?
It would hit my car window,
and I'd bet on which raindrop
would fall the fastest, in limbo.
Now I'm sixteen,
the raindrops still fall,
but instead of water beating down,
its people,
who fall.
And the funny thing is,
with us human beings,
unlike raindrops who fall without any feeling,
we trip and tumble and break,
and like the rain ricocheting off the ground,
we get up and
make the earth shake.

Senior Section:

Water
Divya Ramasamy

I conform to every container I am placed in.
Whether it’s the dark oceans of the Atlantic,
Dark as your mind,
Or the droplet in your cup you ignore,
Meaningless as life,

I flow through you,
Nourishing you,
Let me cleanse you,
Perhaps

I can tell you the secrets of the Earth,
For I have always been present,
Since the ice ages of the mammoths
To the ice age of your frozen laptop screens.

Isn’t it ironic that
I was once honoured as Amphitrite,
Wife of Poseidon,
Now they poison me with chemicals,
And sell me to their own kind,
In plastic bottles.

Junior Section:

Trapped
Cherry Lee

I used to breathe in the fresh air
Run around in bellflowers, blue-flowers and butterflies
I used to yell in the mountain hilltops
Until my throat was dry like a desert

I used to laugh with my friends
Show affection, love, and warmth
I used to see the luminous sky above me
An infinite field of fireflies

I used to have a sense of belonging
Surrounded by things that made me feel safe
I used to cry of laughter
Echoes of boisterous chuckles

I used to be at liberty
No rules, no laws, no guidance, no nothing
I used to feel free in my own land
Wings spread out, and up, up above the clouds so high

Now, I am engulfed in a deep blue
Confined and drowning below the water
But I still know I must see the light
For one should not give in