By Lynsey Balloch You like my hair. I hope you drown in it. Hold it. Smell it. Caress it. Eat it. Tendrils smouldering down your throat. Strangle and squeeze your insides until they combust – In flames. Blood, fire and guts. Wipes out the waste – Never fear darling. Fire grows from rusty, rooted nests.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Samira Kamaly-Fard Hung myself with poisonous web,  Extracted my beating heart, Soul clung on. Chest deflated, time wasted. Whimsical demons smile, hand between my breasts. Fiddled with an empty cavity. You took everything, there's nothing left.  “But you removed your heart” “You put yourself in hell, there you shall reside” Forever tormented.    #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Charlotte Murray my thumb an anchor for a tiny hand   pale and curled as pupae   I can’t imagine any other use for a thumb now   the Burj Khalifa of his miniature world   but he has already grown wings and flown away     #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Bob W Christian My brain's a broken record, Skipping on the same cracked groove. Just jump, it whispers, what's left to prove? The rope, a promise. The chair, a stage. One last breath, before turning life's final page. A silent film, fading to black. No rewind. No coming back.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Victoria Simons I was a life drawing model and each artist painted me blue. My veins were dotted lines: Cut Here. They held cups to my cheek to catch raindrops. It was too much nudity, even for them, and I snatched at myself with translucent hands.     #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Jack Bumby I talk, examining the rubble every time, a little easier you listen hand in mine at first you tried to solve but it’s not a problem to fix the brain is the adversary an enemy trained for battle honed to a keen edge deprogramming takes time   but what dreadful work   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Ash Luetchford You came out naked, red and howling Eyes scrying slivers into mine, Pushing your tiny soles Against my belly as if translating Reaching from the other side, Awe-gasping and looking to me   As if i should know what to do With all this air to breathe-   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Steve Dixon I butter my toast— fully to all corners.   As I have done for the past 25 years…   … s ince I escaped               Scattered Crumbs                         A broken plate                                     A mess of MY  own making?   That first stinging slap to the head   Bewildered;   Why?   Because I hadn’t buttered his toast—                                                 fully to all corners     #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Camilla Fellas Arnold I don’t know which is worse; the pain, or a doctor saying endo pain  can’t rate as 9/ 10   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Mez Waheed for Héloïse and Aldéric     born the size of a blueberry      bruised flesh             flared crown               too soon to pluck the name    or debate                                 pronouns   reason reassures  it happens often      bearing fruit        only blighted                the season   bereft      whispers       life's justice             miscarried   rhyme guide me         where to go                             to resow this seed's heart         

By Sophea Amari Bean They said the stars forgot my name. Fine. I carved it into rivers When the wind turned against me, I stitched my silence to thunder and walked on. Not towards glory, but towards the place where even shadows remember – whom I tried to be.   #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By JF Shaw In hours dark, when sleep would flee, I chose the end awaiting me. If only I'd known, before the stamp, How cramped the urn, how cold and damp. #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Lesley Buchan Donald You stole from me   Little things at first Barely noticed Hardly missed   Chanel Mademoiselle Freshly sliced lemons Longiflorum lilies   Deep refreshing sleep Laughter Joy   Now you have taken my breath My voice My song   I am an artist without Cadmium yellow Vermilion, Cerulean blue   Cruel thief   You have stolen me #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

By Aaron Tweed How the sunlight offends his skin, the morning offers horrors anew.   When people smile he sees tombstones instead of teeth.   Water equals drowning.   Fire equals immolation.   Breathing equals asphyxiation.   Living equals death.     #darkpoetsclub #smallspacedeepimpact #50wordchallenge

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