"Concrete monoliths reaching for the heavens,
hands outstretched.
Veins of asphalt bled dry

Babbling in a shrieking tongue,
Joints rusted and stiff,
Mouths glowing with brimstone and malice, spewing a charcoal vapour.

Faded billboards picturing strange devices,
Those same objects littering the streets
An earth barren
An earth destroyed by vast sprawl

Burnt flags and banners,
Calling for change, for help
Wars fought over meaningless differences

Shattered windows, broken walls
Bodies flooring empty homes

Fractured ground, cruel syringes
Old, jet blood spewing forth-"

He swiftly dismissed the thought. He's no use for words and paper now, not after everything that's happened. He wonders why he's the only one left, why he was the butt of this cruel joke the world's played on him. He has nothing left to fight for, nothing left to die for. Any reason to persist in this world has left long ago. He, like all people on this god-forsaken planet, knows this much.

But those people are long gone. He doesn't know this. He thinks there are others. There haven't been others for years, and years, and years. So he walks his drab city for days on end, a city all to himself. Finding broken electronics, advertisements telling people to go outside, to experience a world rendered meaningless. Collecting flags that have lost all meaning, knowing not what they were for, just finding them fascinating. He decorates his home with curios and oddities he finds in his own little town.

He lays awake some nights, thinking of all he lost, of all he could've been. Some nights he loathes the world for all of its false promises, others he realises he never really deserved them. Sometimes he remembers the wars from his childhood, filled with catharsis and nostalgia. Every time he's haunted by these visions, he writes. He writes for hours, but he never improves, and he never will.

He is only a lousy poet watching the world end.

CBC Books asked students to give us a glimpse of the great Canadian novel of the year 2174. They wrote the first page of a book set 150 years in the future, with the protagonist facing an issue that's topical today and set the scene for how it's all playing out in a century and a half.

Two winning entries — one from the Grades 7 to 9 category and one from the Grades 10 to 12 category — will be chosen by middle-grade author Basil Sylvester.

They are the co-author of the middle-grade novel The Fabulous Zed Watson and the recently published second book in the series, Night of the Living Zed.

Both winners will receive a one-year subscription to OwlCrate, which sends fresh boxes of books to young readers across Canada on a monthly basis. In addition, each winners' school libraries will receive 50 free YA books.

Last year's winners were Christian A. Yiouroukis for his story Where the Maple Leaf Grows and Bee Lang for their story One Question.

The winner will be announced on CBC Books on June 12, 2024.