RunAroundRiot

You have no idea how tickled it makes me that a poet won the 'Written' leg of the 2012 SOYA Awards.
Andrew Bifield. What a man.
Below is my favourite of his submissions...


AFTER THE BUCK'S NIGHT

More than nine months passed: our great objections
Had deflated. I won money on
The timing of the news. They had gone
Through six months more than nine of our dissections
By the time the child was due. We laughed,
Drank, drew conclusions; had a brief return
To form: three months more, there was a turn,
And the baby wasn’t born.

The notice said bright colours: most wore Hawaiian
Shirts. The priest was an old broom, wooden and tall;
The church was brown and modern, and small.
So was the coffin. The sky had rolled from cyan
Into grey as the directors gave
Cards out at the door. Someone up back 
Disrupted the service with a heart attack.
The disapproval waved
Through the church, because they didn’t know;
And at the wake they realised. It was the real show.
Now the lucky duck is off to New York to attend the PEN World Voices.
Plus he gets $5000 in cold hard cash. Probably to invest in some of those trendy boat shoes whist in New York i would say.
Plus a year long mentorship with Markus Zusak. He's some dude who wrote a bunch of books and won a bunch of awards. Not a poet though.