Winner
A Nation’s Journey
Heep Yunn School, Che Sin Ting Steffi, Poetry: Group 4
The scorching sun beamed down the cloudless sky
Casting shadows around my eyes
Yet the two toed creature kept its steady pace
And glided through without a race
The mountains of silky sand lay endlessly ahead
One could not possibly see the end
The beam mercilessly scorched my skin
Sweat and tears trickled down my chin
It’s been thirty three days since we left home
To travel the Gobi’s silky road on our own
The green that once stood between land and sand
Was taken down by blinded men
Machines - they called them - things I’d never seen before
Through the wood and water they cut and tore
Nor did they listen to our tear-filled cries
As they tore along our fragile lives
We had warned them of nature’s unfailing power
To punish those who greedily devour
Yet they shook their brainless heads
Laughed heartlessly as they ate our bread
We had no choice but to leave them to their destined doom
As we set off to find a new land to bloom
Faraway we heard their distant screams
As the storm of sand buried their tainted dreams
We wept for the loss of our self-built kingdom
As we traveled the road with painstaking rhythm
Yet the tears may as well be our compensation
To differ us from the men’s condemnation
Our dry leafy lips tasted the small dose of relief
As the drops of water sane our remaining belief
The scorching sun beamed down the cloudless sky
Casting shadows around my eyes
As the two toed creature kept its steady pace
I wiped the bitter tears off my face
The mountains of silky sand lay endlessly ahead
Yet I swore I would not let this be our nation’s end
I shook my eyes awake from the colourless dim
And replaced it with a watchful beam
