shhs magazine - South Hampstead High School

SHHS Interiors:Layout 1 12/06/2011 22:04 Page 5050HomeHome is the worn, wonky wallpaper,Its ragged stripes diagonalAs if bent with old age.Our moody lamp, which flickers like a blinkingeye,And stubbornly refusesTo take orders from the switch.The way, at night, the sharp wind sneaks inAnd tickles our toes,Which protrude from under the covers.The rabbit that we named Teddy,Whose barely green knitted skinIs wrinkled and spotted like a reread book.The constant tapping of water on glass,Like ping pong balls, or a ticking clock,Trickling cracks in the ceiling.The faces, who look down from their framesAs if the glass is a window,Peering through to keep watch.Katie M, Year 9Poems put forward for the LaurieMagnus Prize along with Jessica B’spoem ‘Family Pieces’The Sand MermaidThe sand mermaid had seaweed hairand pretty green flint eyes.Her lips were red carneliansand twice the normal size.The mermaid’s tailwas oyster shells,her fingernails were gems.Her earrings were the sea-snailsfrom under the seafence.Her bra was made of pebbles,green, orange, red and graybut then the blue sea washed intaking its gifts away.Ella H, Year 5The TwitcherNow, once again, I practice my art.Softening my movements under the veils of sleep andsheets,Turning over like a corpse,A decade per degree,Then, like a hunter aiming down his bowAs a predator I curl my neck over my outstretchedarmTo peep from between the peaks of bedding.I am reminded of early mornings by the lake,With binoculars and patience,Where I learnt how to wait,To watchAs I do nowWhile she puts on tights.The ceremony beginsWith her standing,Still as a hunting heron,Full length up in front of the mirror,Each muscle tending under rippling skinBefore she arches over,Like the neck of some noteworthy birdRare as that evasive brown smudge on misted water.Folds of fabric gathered between her delectable fingers,She glancesSurreptitiously at her ever altering reflection,As she glimpses the wing tips of one thousand lightfooted crows,Unknown to the notebook of even the most fastidiousornithologist.Her work continues,Catching first a pointed toe and thenEnveloping an entire foot,Inch by inch flesh disappears behind a gossamershroudWhich bunches at every curve and muscle:Around her ankle bone,