The withered garden

I once retreated to this garden,
Which once was a garden of love,
A garden of happiness, has now become a garden of doom.
Through flashback do I remember,
The harmless flower beds of roses,
In shades of red, yellow and white.
Harmless were they back then,
But harmful are they now,
Ended in thorns.
As I tried to smell a single rose,
A single drop of blood from my finger,
Fell on to the rose lying beneath,
For the roses have run wild,
With stems, roots and bushes widespread.
They didn't let me smell their aroma,
For was I unable to enter to their world?
But the gate to the garden was open, but why?
I had a chainclock with me,
Tick, tick it went, for some flowers,
Already bloomed, but some not.
And as the sun shone brightly,
The tender flowerbuds opened,
Ranging from red, yellow and white.
And as the flowers bloomed,
The whole area got covered with a dim darkness,
And as the light of sun came to an end,
So did the ticking sound of the clock.
(Meaning - Changing of the heart of a good person, as he enters into a bad society. Sunlight symbolises goodness of the heart, Darkness symbolises bad nature of the heart, Rose garden symbolises society and chain clock symbolises heartbeat of a person.)

S.A. Diyaana Subasinghe,
Grade 10,
Leeds International School,
Mathugama.

Friends

I have lots of friends,
But out of them, I don't have a best friend.
We always smile at each other,
Even we fight with each other,
When we start chatting none can stop us.
When we get-together, we can even
Make this world upside down.
My friends never forget the friends,
When they are in trouble.
They lend their hands to get up.
My friends are true friends,
So they are the greatest of all blessings.
We are friends forever.

Sithmini D. Sirithunga,
Grade 8D,
Sacred Heart Convent, Galle.

The Dentist

The Dentist, oh! The Dentist
Enough to make you clench your fist
Enough to scare your guts right out
Enough to make you sulk and pout
Oh,those horrid driley things
Oh, those terrible spraying things
Oh, those yucky cement stuff
Oh, those cotton stuff and fluff
Yuck that icky bloody taste
That hooked tool to dig a pit
Do hurry up! Do make haste!
The Dentist, Oh, how I
detest it!

Imalya Warnasuriya,
Grade 4B,
Girls’ High School,
Kandy.