This work was first published in Spread the Word’s Young Writers Collective Anthology, 2025. This anthology stands as a testament to the courage, creativity, and growth of a remarkable group of young poets who have spent seven months exploring the power of language and self-expression. The anthology is more than a collection of poems—it is a celebration of emerging voices, of stories told with boldness and vulnerability.
All of the poems can be read here on our website, or you can download the Young Writer’s Collective Anthology to read as a PDF.
The Confessional Box by Simone Eligon
I live in shades of guilt,
indigo, violet, lavender,
mulberry grape wine
sipped on Sundays. Perhaps
it’s the Catholicism,
eight-years-old, and my relationship with God
suddenly welcomes an unwanted third during mandatory confession,
my head bent in technicolour before the priest,
repentance refracting off my stained-glass tongue,
scrambling for sins I’m not sure exist.
Confess—I left God over ten years ago,
confess still echoes through my joints,
muscle memory sealing me in purgatory.
Or, maybe, it’s just the Britishness,
the blue, white, and red mixture bruising
like blackberries crushed against my Black cheek,
shame looping through my bloodstream,
as I build a confessional box from my bones,
a thousand sorrows pulled from my lips,
for all the innocent mistakes,
stumbling over all the violent wrongs.
Confess—
Sorry instead of excuse me,
Sorry for expanding out of myself,
Sorry for every sin that leads to sorry
upon remorseless sorry upon silenced sorry.
About Simone Eligon
Simone Eligon (she/her) is a South London creative with a degree in Film and Media Studies with a concentration in Screenwriting from Yale University. Her work focuses on Blackness, the body, and masculinity. When she’s not busy writing, Simone can be found in goal on the football pitch for Chatham Town FC.