I Made Time Stop<\/strong><\/p>\n Obviously the first thing that comes to mind is a dripping tap And if I could I\u2019d run through a pet shop and take a feather from every bird and take the still but still damp saliva from each dog\u2019s mouth on the tip of a new finger and change the trajectories of goldfish and watch to see if they\u2019d blink and steal some of the money from the till and give it to you.<\/p>\n I\u2019d run through a supermarket and empty a box of cornflakes over a short person\u2019s head just to see if I could stop them in midair and take in the beauty of a head suspended in a cloud of cornflakes like a forever snowglobe with cornflakes instead of snow and a head.<\/p>\n I\u2019d run through a garden centre at night and set off the burglar alarm and discover what a still sound sounds like and I bet it\u2019s something beautiful beautiful beyond all comprehension like four rainbows at once or your smiling nose and then I\u2019d play with the rakes.<\/p>\n Once I\u2019d really gotten the hang of it I\u2019d begin to annoy the bees and when they got close enough to sting me I\u2019d make them stop and I\u2019d keep doing it until I was covered in frozen bees and then I\u2019d strut around town in my suit of bees and everybody would think I was really cool.<\/p>\n I\u2019d get so good that I could stop a beam of light before it reaches the end of a room and then I\u2019d climb inside it and surround myself with it and it would taste like honey and it would feel like the best parts of the sky and when it flooded my lungs I could sing like money and you.<\/p>\n I\u2019d empty a primary school dining hall and fill the air with neatly shredded paper and \u2018Just Like Heaven\u2019 and I\u2019d tap you on the nose to wake you up and we\u2019d dance for as long as we wanted in the forever snow and I\u2019d freeze one of your tears so that I could stare into it for as long as it takes to figure out why and then we\u2019d kiss a millennium kiss and then I\u2019d go home and finish washing my hands.<\/p>\n Sam Summers<\/a> was the winner of the Young Adults category<\/a> of the NCLA’s Water Poetry Competition 2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n The NCLA Water Poetry Competition was judged by W.N. Herbert <\/a>and John Burnside<\/a>. The ceremony was held at Northern Stage<\/a> on 23rd February 2012<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photographs of the event can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nOr a gushing tap gushing ad apparent infinitum
\nAnd I\u2019m holding my breath through a clenched fist
\nAnd unblinking
\nStop.<\/p>\n