National Poetry Competition

Romalyn Ante (NPC competition judge) on ‘Two Boys at Midnight’

“This is a beautiful poem that paints a vivid scene and leaves us with a sense of wonder. Its clarity of imagery, control of language, and pacing are all outstanding. First, we see the two boys in their midnight adventure, ‘no longer unsure of where their limbs are or what they might do’.

The way the boys walk and throw the lamp creates astonishing movement in the poem. The surprising inclusion of the ‘I’ also allows the reader to become part of that adventure. The final image of the lamp ‘pausing mid-flight’ is striking.

It highlights transient beauty – perhaps like youth as if it might last forever. Yet, it also gives a sense of wonder, suggesting some movements truly freeze time.”

Under the tungsten streetlamps
two boys are walking down
the middle of the road, two boys
no longer unsure of where their limbs
are or what they might do,
no longer afraid of what the world
might do. One of them is carrying
a fluorescent tube, its delicate
glass shell yellow in the light.
Who knows where they got it from
or why they took it, but the boy
who holds it – whose face is wide
open – laughs, then takes three rapid
sideways steps and launches it
like a javelin and the three of us,
the two boys and me watching
from my bedroom window,
see it arc into the sky and seem
to pause mid-flight, as if perhaps
it might never return to earth.