Free Verse

Night Shift. Runner-Up in Static Challenge. Top Story - July 2026.

I am eight or nine, home with my younger sister -- Mom is working a night shift. My sister can fall asleep anywhere quickly,

Huh, What, Say Again

The Prompt: Write a poem that captures the feeling of static, whether it's heard, seen, or felt. Static is easy to recognize but harder to explain. It can be noise, texture, tension, interruption, or the feeling of a connection that won't quite come through. Use the prompt as a starting point rather than a definition. Your poem might explore radio interference, charged air, restless energy, crossed signals, or something unresolved beneath the surface. Let sound, rhythm, imagery, and form carry the sensation. Whatever static means in your poem, make it something the reader can hear, see, or feel.

Trapeze

They call it flight, but I call it the space between two heartbeats, a held-breath grace— the half-second my chest forgets its name, too busy trusting the next beat's claim.

A Mourning in October

Joined in the soil Of the earth where Hearth meets calm of Night, I see you there Dawn waiting to find Another birth so that

Tesla's Coils

Did Nikola Tesla's clothing Come from the dryer Full of future static? Tesla's socks entwined in coils Only one, where once was two

Between Stations

Between the sentences and the answer now, something stays speaking softly, stubborn still. Every voice wavers now. Every promise parts.

My Soul, Buffering

[buffering] my soul( it.it .wanders) through halls fuzzy, glitching rooms, with every You shifted oncetwiceagain…who painted You with baby blue eyes? the Y chromosome? phallus an aphrodisiac? your mother floating down an electric river of blood?                         [signal breaking] NO! i.hold.the.stories, the biblical arks, the wants, the heart’s slashed wrists broadcast from a.place you will soon forget. wait. wait. i want to bear the fruit of its screaming: torchsongs! violinstrings snapping! sexuallyabusedbody! a frozen jaw! man locked inside his camera! tiny poems! the devil on the floor! and             [crackling] damn it! damn sadness(reliquary) edges f.l.i.c.k.e.r, this room cobalt blue trying to keep its Shape against coming&going, marrage.divorce.you, this body(another house)collecting taxes and Peter Pan stories, dragging hope, dragging drug addiction from rooms with skylights that could have held it, vivisecting vagus nerve. i confess!—what?— [fission] everything! everything stopped from fingers.feet.breath the whole place suffering, engines breaking down, Tiffany-gifted Christmases given back, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando in a raided park, little princes who can’t control the baobabs, astrology sun-sign obsessions… gone.gone.soon gone recycled and you, Soul: refusing to die, refusing anything but itself…so, tell me quickly, through the          [self-destruction] 10, 9, 8…i think by feeling! which room holds me now, and which waits for the next signal, tuning itself toward your light? which dreams will walk away from this? i can see the eternal Footman carrying my shoes. it is a coldness i do not know! de tach please! i am not ready for

Last Seen

We never stood in the same room, never shared a table, a street, a sky— and still, somehow, you knew me better than most people who could.

One Word Poem

Introduction This is just me being obnoxious and silly, so this is not really an entry 😁 The challenge is here for you to check out

Relentless Summer

Relentless summer reaches scorch height. The everlasting glare Etches sun nicks, sucking greenness. Smoke eventual, lines scarring ground.

Carry the Sparrow

I aim for the throat When lips quiver And tender sentiments rise IN LIQUID RIVERS When shallow breaths take A form of disguise

Whispers in My Head