Poetry 2014 Shortlist, Verina Berryl Rasquinha

An Ode To The Skies

You paint your curtains
In crimson splinters of the sun;
Streaks of graying blinds
Creep across your torso
In desolate glory.
Your canvas stretches w-i-d-e
and clear,
Paying little attention to the artist
That b-r-e-a-t-h-e-s untamed colours
From his palette
Into your lungs.
You play vividly with tiny
Insignificant creatures that
Swoop in skilled patterns
amidst your passages
That reek (now) of obnoxious gases.
You whisper your identity intimately
Into the mediocre waves of the oceans;
That reflect your inscrutable
Splendour in every drop
That lies awake in its belly.
The ladder to the golden gates of heaven dwell
In the eternity of your realm;
The rungs of which I shall
Climb with every ounce of energy that I may muster.

Flash Fiction 2014, First Prize, Verina Berryl Rasquinha

Just Another Night

Pallid sketches of twilight dance on the frontiers of his face. The creases on his wrinkly shirt murmur despicably as they stick to his withered body. He crawls closer to my feet. 

I’m no drunkard’s mercy. I scoff.

I look up towards the sky. The moon was at its fullest tonight.

I see an overview of the houses that sat with their torsos clinging to each other. They mock at my loneliness.

Somewhere in the neighbouring streets, dogs howl wolfishly.

I look down at the man gathered at my feet and imagine his wife sitting by the window in anticipation of her husband as she puts her children to sleep.

The stars of the sky camouflage as sunlight creeps with the first breath of dawn. I dim out. I’m a street lamp and my work is over for the night. I close my eyes as the city comes to life.