Shortlisted
Desertification
The ISF Academy, Secondary Division, Paul Lam, Poetry: Group 3
Out from the dust
And the sands of the hourglass
Come the little men
Born of the dunes amassed
Their swords held high
And their hearts filled with an honor
A single file line
Each one of them a goner
Treading through the cold
With an oblivious quest nobody knows
March, march, march, and march
A warm dream that froze
To go battle with the worm of death
Blind stabs and thrusts
One by one they fall
Back to the dust
The men become the sandy burgeon of the desert
Meaninglessly detesting
As the death worm thrives
To shrivel back into clandestine
Note from the author
As the title suggests, this poem is about the desertification or the rapid expansion of the Gobi
Desert. The Death Worm is a mythical creature said to roam in the Gobi Desert. I used the Death
Worm as a symbol for desertification, and the sand men as a symbol for people. When the sand
men fight the Death Worm and die they collapse into sand and expand the desert. I was trying to
communicate the idea that people have caused desertification because of deforestation, but they
have also tried to fight against it like the current Green Wall of China.
