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Winners 2007 : Runner-up : Alice Howlett

Alice Howlett

St George’s School for Girls, Edinburgh

Before Dawn

Looking for stars as you sleep, and missing them, drowsily I know
that if I could, I’d take you somewhere the weather tells us yes
and doesn’t toss and turn, moan, blearily roll over;
I’ve had enough of this sullen chill, this hibernating sky.
With a short sharp lift, we’d leave this wet November
and we’d rise, freed, paper-lantern-like from Edinburgh
into higher, thinner air; and then the stars we’d see, your face
tight against the window, would challenge us to keep on loving
our city’s nightly glitter: Arcturus, Vega, and galaxies, nebulae,
indistinct, radiant; and I’d feel a subtle surge that meant we were
part of something greater, far greater, and you’d nestle back down,
your head on my shoulder, until it was time to wake you.