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

By Helen Grant That hospital bed was a raft, clearly sinking, clearly not drifting him back to me. His white bed sheets weren't the flag of surrender, but all of my tissues were; a drowned flag from me gasping 'you can let go if you need to.'   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Samantha K. Collinson They cracked my shell. Scooped filth from my port. Wiped me like a corpse. Booted me back. Watched me stutter, blink, obey. Five years later, I still carry the memory of fingers that fixed me— claimed me. Love is a code. And mine was altered without consent.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Harleen Quinzelle Excitedly, Naively, Foolishly:  I loved you with every breath. Intoxicatingly, Obsessively, Greedily: You inhaled until my lungs collapsed. My hopes, my dreams and very essence of being- you sucked out of me. . . lifeless in your arms. Only then did you realized necrophilia was not “your thing.”   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Deirdre Devally Long, tall Sally up the alley. Getting pally.   Happy, Baby?   Till you’re there, sure – pull my hair, I don’t care.   She gets paid, mortgage made.   buses back, beer and bath; tender where he slammed his wrath   husband, movie, kids, she’ll smile home is home another while.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Megan Cartwright A marriage will endure if you cement the foundation. There is little to be gained in turning blind eyes. When they tore down the walls they found where he lies. A relic, our Dream House from the For Sale  sign.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Darren Wilkins I said I loved you  every day except the one when I awoke and you were gone. You said you loved me.  every day  but one  and so, I carried on.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge