Winners 2011

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Abigail Richards (Third prizewinner)

King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls, Birmingham

Simple

They kindly called him simple.  I didn’t understand

Why the boy lies somewhere on The Spectrum
But I can see every colour in him,
He who is acquainted by name with most every colour,
And paints people
Captured by his mind’s eye, distorted by his mind

Which is different to mine, as mine to yours, only more

So, the boy never lies.  Not even in
Shades of magnolia/ ivory/ snow.
He can hear a pin drop, Earth warring and sparring and the din
Of the pin drop
Piercing, so that he can’t hear me, he’s far too far

From where I stand a space away, he looks lonely.

Clockwork leaves brought me closer to the sky
And in time I understood all their hues.
But years and he create questions without answers and I
Can’t help but hate
To see his every colour, yet not know how to paint him.

I don’t find him simple.  I don’t understand.