Okay, sorry this took so long! Well done everyone!! I can't wait for next round, keep up the awesome work, poets!! :D

Honorable mentions (in no particular order)

Ayles C. This is so cute! Very creative and I very much enjoyed this!! Short and fun and you really told an interesting story using so few words. I loved reading this. Well done!!

Periwinkle. The internal questioning and the storytelling were so good! You conveyed quite the story through this poem, as I said, and it was so fun to read! I really loved the last two lines, and the whole poem definitely felt like one big question. This was so well done and very very interesting to read. I really liked how/when you cut off certain lines and overall I loved this poem! I loved the lines But it comes back,/Or maybe I do and it’s the one/that never left,. 

4th place! (tie)-Reuby Moonnight. So short and sweet! I really enjoyed the format, it gave off a nervous kind of vibe. I think it was fun and told a good (true) story, though you used little words. This was one of my favorite poems I’ve seen you post. Keep up the amazing work! I can’t wait to see your future poems! Well done!!

Darkvine. I loved the format even though I don’t normally see/enjoy the style of poem you wrote it in! I really enjoyed the repetition in each stanza, and I especially liked the lines eternal guilt/clinging like slime. Overall I loved this poem, short and sweet! Well done!

3rd place!-Writing_in_the_dark. This is so, ah I don’t know how to describe it, so childish and smart and well thought out and just, ah! So good! It’s so mature and sentimental and nostalgic and just, wow. You strung the words together beautifully and I thought this poem gave off such a salty and bitter vibe, but also a, like, cute kid kind of vibe I guess. So yes, I loved this, especially the lines How dare you betray/a friendship I formed/from magma and stone. Overall this was so amazing!!

the world is silent. tendrils of fog curl up from the crushed grass she cried on, reaching up to join the clouds.

they have no hope of making it. [the only person left] wishes she could tell them that, crush their dreams before the dreams crush them.

when the books told to follow her dreams, they did not tell her that her dreams could strangle her, wrap around her until she cannot see through them.

she collapses to the ground like she is simply a pile of pebbles, staring up at the sky. she cannot see the details of the clouds. the fog that wraps around her is too thick.

the cold, humid air pulls bumps up in her skin. she does not find the energy to shiver. instead she takes piles of dry leaves and crushes them in her fists. they do not make a sound, or maybe she cannot hear.

she imagines the ticking of a grandfather clock, her mother's clock, tick tock tick tock. ticking away her time left here.

she remembers, when she was just a kid with a starry eyes and stubby hair, on foggy days like this her mother would make her hot soup. she would shove herself into a puffy coat and bring it outside and watch the steam drift up into the sky.

she would ask if the steam would become part of the clouds, and her mother would reply that it is already part of the clouds, because fog is just clouds on the ground.

and she would finish her soup and run around in the clouds and tell herself she was flying.

but she was not flying, and she is not right now either, her hair long and tangled, face muddy and dull, bony fingers grasping at the earth as if it could comfort her.

[the only person left] lays herself down on the dry, cracked earth and lets her eyes flutter shut. she tells herself it will be better in the morning, but she does not really believe there will be another morning.

Foggy days.

A low hanging cloud.

A misty, gray shroud.

A smoke like vail.

But hey,

A least it's not hail.

Overcast or rainy.

The drivers feel complainy.

Thundering, blundering,

and beeping about.

Might be a storm.

Some start to shout.

It's so interesting.

With it's slithering and gliding.

Meanwhile.

I try and see,

What the fog,

Could be hiding.

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I think that poem was the first I did that is completly rhyme-ed. I really like it.

Lonely

Never alone yet always lonely

Surrounded on all sides

But none of them see me

The fog reaches in

Removes the colours

I can hear its grin

Tendrils of obscurity

Swallow me whole

There is no surety 

the world is obscure

nothing's quite secure

a haunting landscape

mist hanging like a ghostly drape

the clouds came down,

down,

down,

to drown the earth in fog. 

I really had no idea where this was going - I wrote it after I finished my work in math class this morning. 

secrets unsaid

the town is guarded 

by a veil of darkness and mist

i wonder what the fog is trying to keep out

or in

i adjust the the straps of my rucksack

the wet leaves coating the ground silence my footsteps

mist wreaths my ankles

i stumble on cobblestone

i get up and wipe my bloodied palms on my turtleneck

the folks i pass keep their heads down and walk quickly

in alleyways i keep thinking i see figures,

eyes sunken black holes, hands outreaching

but i turn and find only a hissing black cat

the clocktower looms above the town

a train’s whistle sounds in the distance

a forlorn wail in the night

orange street lights flicker, then die

now the only illumination comes from the moon

a pale, ghostly orb

the town is swathed in mist

thin gossamer shrouds

enfolding the buildings

i shiver, thankful for the rucksack

hugging my back

my boots thud on cobblestone

this town has secrets hidden in the

ivy twisting up old buildings,

in the things that lurk in the shadows

and the murky pools of old rainwater

but you know, 

some secrets are better left 

unsaid 

White soundlessness --

The air is thick

and cold;

Damp. 

It is dark and white

somehow all

at once. 

Lungs

fill with vaporized snow.

Clouds drift down

And settle into everything.

Wisps kissing the sky and earth,

Rising from the water like ghosts--

Unloved and lost, homeless spirits--

Creeping up to a place far

Away from their watery graves.

I hold my arms open and embrace

The gold-threaded puffs

In dusk and dawn as they wander.

Come with me, I adore your beautiful mystery.

I'll watch over you, dance with you,

Listen to your stories.

So let's go together, into the deep forest of faeries. 

Hopefully this goes with the theme okay. I wanted to experiment, tell a deeper and less generic story. I did have the stretch the truth about the amount of time dogwoods are in bloom for to make the poem make sense, which I apologize for.

Foggy days

i miss your smile

your sunshine

i miss how you used to

play

and laugh

like nothing mattered except joy

i see you now

old

and tired

and i think

what happened to the sunshine?

foggy days

the fog rolled in

turned your hair gray

your mouth down

your eyes away

and i wonder

is it still in there somewhere?

foggy days

but is it sunny underneath?

does the sun poke through

more brilliant for the time its been away?

or is it still fog

im sorry.

Clutching her necklace
a gift from her sister
sobbing   tears streaming
down her face

why
she wondered 
why did it have to happen
I'll never see her again
the word reverberated
in her mind

fog descended around
matching the gloom
in her heart

Suddenly
through her tears
she saw lights 
thousands of pinpricks of light
following them through the fog
barely seeing a few feet around her

Eventually the fog thinned
A clearing ahead!
Stepping into the clearing
the last of the shimmering fog

She gasps
watching everything unfold
in front of her eyes
wiping away her tears
shaking her head
clearing the fog
she finally understands 

Understanding the way of life
all meant to be
the fog lifts
leaving behind
perfect clarity.