Congratulations to the winner of the New Zealand Poetry Society Autumn Instagram Poetry Competition for 2018:

Carly Waddleton (@coconutdeer)

Crusted Thistles
The burning hallows of Autumn ​lay a crematorium at the door.
Crusted thistles in copper shackles ​flow tidally to my shore.
I sweep.
I swept the decays of bloomings ​into a humane mound, ​but Winter torments with a suck of​ ​a promise and scatters the unswept ground.
I lean to brush, and caress once more
the burning hallows of Autumn’s shore.
And yet you cry upon my ear,
A promise of a distant near.
I lean to brush, I lean to brush,
but a faint footstep holds my bristles to hush.