By Ruth Guest Sinking into blackness. The deep. Dragging and pulling Drawing me inside   Glassy white flesh, Bloodless. Icy cold Emptiness The abyss A void   Senses ceasing Breath stalling Eyes close Numb, emotionless Life given out Extinguished   It is gone Done Over At rest Expired At peace?   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Elizabeth Sawdon You named me once I was not yours to name. You named me twice But all the same I answered when you called. But since, ignored your beck, And when you stopped your calling, Phone or pen, Gave way to distance, silence then.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Susan DiPronio Will you wash my body when I lay upon the last throne.   No other will do.   As stiffness replaces softness that held you through the storms   let your fingers flow gently tracing the last lines of my life.   While they fill with your tears drink of me one last time.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Peter Devonald Deeply uncomfortable in our own flawed skin we wriggled, writhed and slithered into someone else’s.   It was easier this way, to pretend, to make-believe, a mask on a mask, to forever be an actor.   Soon we’d forget who we really were, lost in an echo chamber of other people’s desires. #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Yucheng Tao No great bell awakens. Lost myself in the dark, I still search for that promised land but it remains   invisible . Perhaps that is God’s cruelest joke: casting me adrift outside the narrow door. To enter, if I receive grace To leave, still adrift, like driftwood.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Virtual Scribe Fractured thoughts leave Lingering impressions Haunting empty spaces, Echoes of ideas expand like Ripples formed from Fallen leaves Or stone skipping on Tranquil waters’ Shimmering surface, Shining lights illuminating Hidden possibilities, Inviting leaps of faith To grasp at Trailing threads of Dreamt potentials, Existential sentiments Inspiring escape. #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Milica Marković So many times we've raised and lowered our guard that we don't know what our next move is? Should we love each other? Or should we kill each other? What's the difference, anyway?     #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Stephen Chappell The woods seem empty.  Despite night’s chill, I am happy, walk deep into dark. Paths peter out. It occurs to me I will not return. It is as if peace has been found.   No moon on the path. I stop hearing my steps. Become the dark.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Rio L. Barney Strike the match Stoke the flame Flame licks my skin Eases all my pain.   Flames consume me Eat away my flesh Leaves only ash   Cinders fall Old pieces of me   I arise anew.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By S.J.Wildling something primal prowls between us you're stalking waking thoughts my breathing is laced with lust I grip your jaw, yank your head my way; look at me, damn it. Let me drown in you.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Krowan the flies came the birds grew fat and happy the spiders too they’d never known such abundance they dined out together birds and spiders grew fat and happy for six weeks of summer   at the house on Herschell Street the thirteen bodies lay exactly where they fell   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Pam Martin-Lawrence She's right beside me, yet I'm stone cold lonely. She carves her lies – her constant care and never-ending need ground down by my epidote-eyed-flinty-heart – and when did she last warm my chill with her fingers?   I remember when she'd reach for me like only my touch would ever be enough.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Hope Savage You asked your sister where her mummy was and I was too slow to intervene. ‘You mean our real mummy?’. Amongst the ‘I hate you’ and ‘you pushed me’ tension of another new family, our fragile glass was fractured as your tiny lip wobbled.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By David Todd I despise all forms of lying, especially religion, Which, Like the war drone threatens invisibly from above, Scrutinising our moral fortitude, Whilst keeping us safe and killing us for ever.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Jaggii Jaggii The repulsive stench lingers on her skin. Relentless scrubbing doesn't eradicate it. Grunting foul words to the gods fails to purge it or the remembrance of the copious blood, the one eyeball, and the shredded bodies of the children in the mangled automobile that could not save them.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Faye Livesey My body sinks deeper into the mattress,  not from rest, but a weight that won’t lift.  Standing feels like dragging a suitcase  through a place I don’t remember choosing.  Even breathing feels like something I'm losing.   Sadness lives where no one can see— quiet, and exactly the size of me.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

Vincent Arnold Not quite still city,   not quite civil war,  shops are open,   trading on the outskirts,  a train is running,   never to meet the platform,   for the central has fallen,   to the rush of rumor,   becoming a state more torn,  than what the hair lines divided.     #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Daniel Alexander I shall die a silent death Quieter than the pebble breaking the ocean’s veil, I shall be buried under moss and mold, Cold, lifeless, but not alone For the maggots and their children shall forever call me home, Burying themselves into the marrow of my bone #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Philippa Greasley Sweat between my lips Closing them. Oven-hot air burning chunks from my gums My larynx, coughed up into the sink. The sunlight is a stalker Circling me Sinking its nails into my eyes Ripping my teeth and my tongue from my face Turning me non-verbal.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Jayne Burton black dog’s ever present a lifelong companion but not really a friend   wants constantly feeding a diet of gloom barks for attention nothing satisfies its need   one day the dog rests   you know it won’t last but today’s a break am I the only dog-owner praying their pet would escape?   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge