Imogen won second place in the 16-18 years category in our 2022 Young People’s Poetry Competition.

the television blares its saccharine noise

so you shut out that digital unknown.

you turn to desktop comfort with pen to paper,

chair tucked like a nestling bird and

a pen pot shelter to hide a wish.

a lampshade illuminates, brightened bulb

to glittering eyes, paving the distance

for inky philosophy. you stretch along

to the kitchen sink and wash away your

fleeting doubt. you cook up a menu, just for you,

then fling your heart into an armchair,

venerable leather sinking under

its weight. you stay in your walls because you can

hang a memory, here and there, and call it your own.