By claudia chen
a child who vanished in 2009
bright eyes diminished in the matteness
of the missing person poster
come back, everyone misses
you
as everyone searches
they try to conceal the damage done
losing sight of what must be protected
rosy lenses shattering and blinding you
strawberry fields decayed and turned into dust
burying the path leading to home,
a home on fire
the charred matchsticks are in your hands
the child in the photograph looks on,
begs me to set her free
but from the ashes, nothing rises
in an act of selfishness, i say
i am protecting you
behind this rusty armour
one day our hands will learn to forget destruction
the words we say will remain the same
repeated so often they’ve lost all value
the world will keep spinning
and i’ll keep losing time going backwards
looking for memories never formed
looking for a ghost
so i’ll take down the posters,
ink faded and long gone like the girl herself
and we’ll call it a day.
claudia chen is currently a Year 6 film student at School of the Arts. Formerly a literary arts student, she took to poetry after realising that 1. words didn’t have to be arranged into neat little stanzas, 2. she could hold on to an incomprehensible feeling and give it an image that makes sense. claudia also enjoys scriptwriting, designing cards and embroidery, and she runs a school-based literary magazine with her friends.
Amber: The Teenage Chapbook 