Here is Gillian Southgate's prizewinning entryfor The Oldie's monthly literary competition:
CORONA, CORONA
In spite of spring, the trees are mostly bare
There is a sense, quite palpable, of peace.
High in the sky the silver scribbles cease
The vault of blue gives back a solemn stare.
Cars, buses, taxis, people are nowhere
Who clustered in the roads like angry geese.
There is a sense of loosening, of release,
Of something like a blessing in the air.
The birds have flirted with their mates all day
And every hour the sun has cleanly shone.
It’s almost healing, now, to be alone,
To watch emerging bumble bees as they
Pursue their good intents. And when I turn away,
Here is a ladybird, scarlet, on a stone.
Gillian Southgate
Oldie competition conditions: the end of each line was
given as follows, and a poem was asked for using all of them:
Bare, peace, cease, stare, nowhere, geese, release, air, day,
shone, alone, they, away, stone.)
