THE WINNERS PT 3: 2nd Prize - 'Nunkin' by Phillip Binding

Second prize was awarded to Phillip Binding for his poem 'Nunkin':

'Nunkin'

At dusk, when tired midges half-heartedly

suck the wee lambs dry, driving them mad

so their bleats shriek like whipped children,

the Nunkin stalks. He doesn’t care for light.

Nor for the dark if truth be admitted.

He loves the cloven comfortable hours

when busy folk like you finish your tasks,

forget your fear for a few moments.

That Nunkin he’s a caution, sliding under smiles,

whooshing a crafty breeze at your back door,

shaking it in moaning rattles so your tiny

neck-whiskers stand up like hair on a rat’s back.

His fingers are the choking clouds of twilight,

his feet great lapping waves across the loch,

oh aye! and his eyes are shaded lamps

blinking in the conspiratorial trees.

Nunkin will suck you dry. He’ll heap you,

wring your vulnerable brain like a dishcloth,

soak it in winter twilight, silent Glen,

abandoned landscape, brooding Brae and Ben.

When your back’s turned and you’re half relaxed

his little sting goes in with a soft squirt,

inseminates venom in your veins.

Now all the wanton world is inside you.

Too late now! Nunkin squats hunched on

your perfect lawn as night rumbles by,

his fading headlight eyes grinning in

a gloating gape of callous orgasms.

Nunkin slinks away before dawn eats his fear,

stuffing your laughter in his bag of swag,

whistling as his boots crunch over

the shards of your forsaken future.