OWEN MISKIN took second place in the 2024 Wangaratta Young Writers Award year 7/8/9 poetry or song lyrics category with this piece.

The competition was jointly run by the Rotary Club of Wangaratta, and the Rotary Club of Appin Park Wangaratta.

oooo

Factories coughing up soot and ash

Our streets filled with trash,

The world awash with sickness

Companies think it’s good for business,

Our world is making a slow descent into madness

Some people choose to embrace the madness,

The world has a fever, it's too hot,

But fear not,

Because our fragile minds chose to laugh at our own feat

Even though the ice can't handle the heat,

We talk about fixing it

But we don’t do anything 'cause the fire is already lit,

No point in trying, we put gas on it

Influencers more worried about keeping fit,

I wonder what it'd look like to see the world through the wobbly lens of a wave

But we are just told to smile and behave,

The four horsemen are here

But there’s no cheer,

A civilisation goes extinct because of themselves

I think we are as important as a book on some shelves,

I pray that we miss

Death's gentle kiss.