Oh, wow, thanks! The next theme is bleak, and the deadline is September 30. 

Okay, here's my poem!

Bleak

I see a wind-torn desert

grey sands sliding down the dunes

wisping through the air

like bone dust

I see an endless plain

sun burning pale white

in the pallid sky

as grass ripples in the wind

I see a ruined city

cracked and crumbling buildings

skyscrapers too tired

to support their own weight

I see your eyes

pale and cold as a winter storm

when you say you don't care

you wish I never existed

bleak

that is what I see. 

09/27/19

i.clouded-over eyes, smokey

water, grey fog; the

color drained from a sunset, dimmed

hope, emptied of

poetics; liquid dreams seeping from

souls, leaking down the

sidewalks and into

drains; my dear friend, your

hope is not yet gone, because

you have never known a world quite this

bleak.

ii. broken glass, the crunch of

far-flung shards, iridescent

powder; quivering hand, left bare in the

cold, hope slipping from its

fingers; adam and eve cast

away, rejected from god, cracking under the weight of

the first mistake; my dear friend, how

little our troubles are, for

we will never know a world quite this

bleak. 

I really like both of the poems posted so far! The sad part is that there are only two of them. :( In order to hopefully get more entries, I’m extending the deadline to... October 7. Please enter! Everyone! Even if you think your poetry is bad or you don’t have enough time.

I dare you to open up a comment window and start typing. Don’t worry about whether it’s good or not. Just dump words, enter your CAPTCHA, and hit submit. The worst that’ll happen is that you’ll write a poem (yay!!) that doesn’t win (that’s okay!!). That’s what I did for years (years) before I finally got a poem that someone thought was good enough to win.

Oops, I'm sorry! I meant to write a poem for this round. I've just been busy and kind of down about my writing (and therefore, ending up not writing anything) for a really really really lonnnnnng time. But I did write something. 

Also, I think this thread has just been having a hard time staying alive for a long time because there aren't a lot of people who are interested in participating. A thought

--

just me

just a girl

sitting by the ocean

wondering when her life will stop falling to pieces

tossing shells into the water 

and carving her name into the rocks

just a girl 

sitting by the ocean

wondering when her life will come back together

staring into the horizon

and noticing how the clouds (like her) aren't perfect

just a girl

sitting by the ocean

wondering when her life will begin

thick grey clouds like day-old cream,

mist and fog and swarming droplets

falling falling falling like hammers on nails over and over

endlessly circling inward in deep dark death spirals

a vicious cycle in black and white,

spikes driven in to soft wooden flesh,

raging water and moonless night

dogged steps and lidded eyes

a final glimpse, flickers at the edges,

sweat and tears mixing unnoticed

a wilted garden and blocked-out light 

prison bars, boarded up windows;

they say hope is the thing with feathers,

but what happens when it flies too close to the sun?

Untitled~

Tears running down my face

Your face is ugly

I know they're there, but I can't feel them

No one will heal you

I can't feel anything now

You never could

My heart is broken

No one wants you

I've lost everything

You never had anything

No one is here for me

They were never there

I look into my future, and see nothing

You don't have a future

Only sadness

How lovely

Only despair 

My lovely, broken pawn

The world, with it's heart of stone, can't hear us

You don't understand

The world will never hear us 

Bleak:

~~~~~

A chilling, seeping sense of dread,

Pristine, highly-polished smooth surfaces,

Over-imposing far-too-shiny LED lights,

A fog of death and pain hanging on the air;

The cease of that rhythmic beeping-- it blares,

Silently shrieking louder than any sound before; 

Tears, long dried: red, ichy; acidic and worn, 

Eyes, too exhausted to open again,

Legs burning from running, 

Flashbacks from a brighter time,

Suddenly shattered, brought to a screeching halt,

Like that car-- but it's already too late--

With a earth-shattering, mind-shattering CRASH! 

It's over.

Now, bitterness welling up,

coagulating streams of scarlet,

Fading into a dark rusty shade; 

Painful memories pushed down, forced away,

Begging to resurface, vying for dominance,

Only to be peevishly denied,

drowning in sorrow, anger, guilt. 

But then, a spark-- All hope is not lost--

After all, it is always darkest before the dawn; 

And with dawn comes a promising future to be seen.

Hi guys. I realize I’m late on judging, and I apologize. I’m not going to make excuses right now, but I promise I’ll do it this afternoon.