It's the 2025 Poem-A-Week Challenge! (This is a *poems only* thread.)

[_Land]

Highlights in Red

Red and orange leaves fall gently
like traces of your hair framing my face.
The air holds its breath around us,
each strand a thread of fire brushing my lips.

Your warmth lingers in the hush,
sunlight pooled against my neck,
the faint spice of your skin
stirring where the wind once rested.

The world tilts amber and alive,
each leaf a heartbeat breaking loose,
falling slow as your laughter did
when I reached to tuck it behind your ear.

Now the branches empty quietly.
The light moves on without you.
Still, I wait beneath its glow,
hoping one leaf will find your face.

 

[_Land]

Grief Is an Entertaining Friend

Grief is such an entertaining friend,
it rarely lets you feel lonely.
It knows all your old stories,
pours another drink,
asks how you’ve been,
then answers for you.

It laughs at the wrong moments,
points to the empty chair,
the quiet shelf,
the way your voice still bends
around a name you won’t say.

It dresses in your memories,
wears their scent,
sits close until you forget
who opened the door.

When the night grows thin,
it hums that tired tune.
You hum along,
because silence feels
too much like goodbye.

 

[Aquelle]

A poem a week
Now it's time, get your rhyme
A poem a week
It's your rhyme it's your dime

Drop me a line
All your words winged like birds
Drop me a line
All your words make 'em heard

A poem for you
It's a gift, spirits lift
A poem for you
Scent of words take a sniff

A poem a week
Or a rockin rhyme a day
A poem a week
Hope my riffin' was okay

 

[Xenofidelity78]

I feel like every time I lay down
a piece of me stays asleep
like I wake up and feel fine
but there's something that didn't keep

there's a sliver of my mind
that's lost in an endless dream
and I'm always so tired
looking for the best of me

because the best is what's taken
at least that's what we're meant to believe
it can't possibly be mistaken
for what we never should have bereaved

we don't know what we've lost
but maybe our loss is our gain
because we're already lost in the echo
and can't resist our refrain

we're trained to hold on to things
to fear mystery and covet what we know
but maybe what our dreams are telling us
is that it's time to let it go

 

[_Land]

The Telescope

By Bear Sage

°

You steadied me with the same hand she rested on your knee.

That weight, quiet, certain.

When you turned my knob, the stars would paint the sky with your love.

°

Her laugh brushed my barrel.

You both leaned in,

and the night cracked open,

a seam of breath and heat.

°

I remember the scrape of your ring,

echoing like her breath on your jawline,

the way your hand held me

just a little bit tighter.

°

The porch holds you still, in silence.

Her chair gone silver with weather.

I keep my aim on Orion,

out of habit, out of hope.

°

If she were still here,

you might still touch me like she touched you,

slow, deliberate,

as if clarity could bring her back,

and bring you back to me.

 

[Aquelle]

Poetry
Nothing to it?
Screw it.
I can't do it.

 

[SmilingLez]

Tantrum

Fists clenched.
Knuckles white.
Playground silent.

She screams -
Empty air.
Dust kicks.
Stones scatter.
No one turns.

Rage bubbles,
molten and sharp.
Rejection.

Her shadow stretches.
Alone.
Brittle.
Cracked.

No tears.
Just silence.
Her breath echoes.

 

[Aquelle]

I SAVED HER

I saved her
From that horrid man
His brutish touch, his bruising lust
I saved her

She swam next to me
In fragrant seas, on nectar waves
Liquid pleasure bathed her skin
As she moaned my name

Two pearls pressed together tight
Luscious love to lubricate
Fusion heat melts ocean floor
Tectonic grinding soon erupts

Erupts and rises from the depths
Islands rise above the waves
Isles of ecstasy so great
Archipelago of love

Lovely Lesbos, lifting, looming
Salty sweet sultry Sappho sings
My lips on hers and hers on mine
Drink your fill, my love

I saved her
With my touch, my love, my heart
But only for one night
Come morning she'll go back to him