It's the 2026 Poem-a-Week Challenge (This is a *poems only* thread.)

[SmilingLez]

This free verse is dedicated to all the girls, adult women, elderly women, and boys, who go missing, kidnapped, used as sex slaves, and get exploited every day. They do not get the attention of law enforcement that the rich and famous get.


The rich and famous,
coddled in their mansions.
When they vanish,
the sirens wail,
police swarm like bees.
Press lines form -
a spectacle.

We are shadows,
forgotten and ignored.
When we scream,
no one listens.
Elected officials smile,
but only for the cameras,
while we are left to rot
our loved ones forgotten
our pain dismissed,
unworthy of their time.

 

[Hotcoffee123]

Sometimes the holes

Sometimes the holes left by loss are deeper

than the ones filled with love.

It’s hard to know.

Will you ever be whole. Sometimes the holes left by

loss are deeper than those filled in with love.

Never forget, the holes filled with loss were once filled with love.

Loving again is a whole thing.

Let that sink in ,

We have the capacity to fill new holes.


Still in the works

 

[SpermFactory]

Blues Poem Challenge


Chicago Charlie

Ties, lies, I been shoe shining for days,
Ties, lies, I been shoe shining for days,

Doing by, keeping my face down chasing
change seeing my reflection in shiny shoes,

I ain’t got no Cadillacs or Bell-air Chevys,
Just a shoe shining box on Maxwell street

They say shoe shine boys ain’t got no blues
while I say good morning to your shoes

Soon you be leaving me saying,
ain’t you heard boy you ain’t got no story

just a shoe shine boy, hustling dime
once upon a time on Maxwell street.

Wellll my guitar is playing lazy lights low
singing alone in my room it ain’t rained

for days, ties lies one night I be in the club,
I been shoe shining for days…


[8]

 

[12oclocktales]

(Also posted in the Blues Challenge thread)


Sung by Papa Slops


Big Ass Blues

Don’t want no skinny ass woman hanging round my bed
No skinny ass woman hanging round my bed
Gotta have a handful back there, a big fat loaf-a bread

Gotta knead that dough, get it nice and fine
Knead that dough, get it nice and fine
Make it rise in the pan, fat and soft, then I grind

Yeah, I’ll grind that ass
Grind it, grind it, grind it hard
Till it’s nothin but a mess

Wanna slap that be-hind, make the whole room shake
Slap it hard, watch the whole room shake
Smash my face right in it like it was a wedding cake

Come on, baby, get your fat ass on my face
Come on, get that fat ass on my face
Smother me with it, fuck yeah, that ain’t no disgrace

(#11)

 

[Waeponwifestre]

Crippled Willie’s Lament / The Bottom Blues

Twelves years a woman, needle every week
I lived highs unmatched and lived lows so bleak
Twelves years a woman, needle every week
I wouldn’t change it for the world, but damn
Years past, Lord, have left my flesh mighty meek

Hotel rooms feeling like a failed exam
People hope I can still ram, wham and slam
Strangers’ beds all seem like a failed exam
Folks all got fantasies to live up to
Let em down cause getting up’s now a sham

Twelve years a girl, worth it to be true
But now my toppings got no follow through
Twelve years now I’m singing the Bottom Blues
Lord you left my piece of flesh mighty meek
Now some days I miss my dick that could screw

Week 6 Poem 2 Total 13

 

[amitheotherone]

Roundabout

I’m crazy yes indeed see me
I said I love you it will never be.
All along just dipp’en mind scrapes
Tic tok always skipping in a mindscape.
Door opened you let me in like kin
Overlook my style sex and that I sin.
I’m that tape the radio ate so eject
A pencil spun me back not rejected.
At speed we blink what did we miss
Poles shift we start to lean and list.
Restless walking down are own path
Stumble back here again we just laugh.

Five to one

 

[Wonderer67]

The orange light of
February evenings
Against a white wall

https://imgur.com/a/zXqIiPg

6/52