Verity Rose
Crispy, calloused ice crunches underfoot,
Whooshing winds rush through ruffled feathers.
Chattering chirps call chicks to parents,
Slick, slippery fish slide on the ice, falling from salivating beaks.
The frigid air freezes feet and fingers,
Clicking cameras catch scenes of chicks emerging from shells.
Curious shuffles of feet through snow shimmy towards the shivering beings,
Groans and clicks crack through the gusts, a communication the explorers do not comprehend.
Yellow crests billow in the wind and snow fills their feathers,
Droopy eyes blink through the snow to view the world around.
As the quacks and cries fail into the dark,
Whistling winds whisper and wail into the sleepless night.
Flapping feathers from the heavens above fill the sky with music,
Chirping cries screech to the snow caps below as the carnivorous creatures crawl.
Blood and bone blister in the cold as beaks and talons break skin,
Chicks and guardians grow in a circle of protection around their kin.
The watchers whisper and wait with one another for their perfect portrait,
A mother and a chick cuddling each other, and snap and the image is caught.
Circular columns scraped out of the ice leave chasms to the centre of the continent,
Layers of ice, snow, and feathers burrow below from the surface to reveal what lingers from the past.
Crisps, crunches, chirps, and clicks,
Blinks, billows, beaks, and breaks,
Flaps, whistles, whispers, and flicks,
Screeches, crawls, scrapes, and snaps.
The echoing, solid continent continuously cries as creatures crawl and exist amid its crystal ice and snowy lakes.
The frigid weather does not falter as if it were a fissure of frozen wasteland.
Oil leaks and fires spread, water rises and gales sear.
Ice expires and feathers sink, the continent tires and its creatures scream.
And then there was silence.
Verity Rose (she/they) is a Meanjin-based (Brisbane) poet, screenwriter, and novelist working on the 2024 Content Writing Team at ScratchThat. She has been writing stories since she was four and has studied screenwriting at universities since she was sixteen. Verity consistently incorporates the new experiences and ideas that she’s gotten from living and travelling around the world—from North America to outback Australia—into her writing.
Sophie Gollant (she/her) is marked by her earnest oil paintings and photographs of earthly, isolated scenes. Sophie’s practice is steeped in metaphors and motifs that earnestly draw on her experiences of womanhood, chronic illness, and solitude.
Instagram: @soggolla