The fading ink of sorrow, etches deep,
inkwells dry, brittle quills fall asleep.
The page will not be scripted,
all the damage done has drifted,
into the ether of the sage.
In recognition of "Erase My Existence" by Ink Express. Great read!
Spark,
Dies,
Ash falls,
Glow fades out,
Lanterns lose their light,
Tiny souls of summer depart,
Softly drifting through the
deep and weeping autumn
breeze,
A fragile world dissolves into
the deep and utter silent
shallows of the night,
No longer showing, guiding
lonely travelers back across
the misty forest meadows
where they used to dance so
bright underneath the silver
moon,
The weeping woods are cold
and silent now to bid a final
sad farewell to every single
fleeting spark of gold that
softly perished in the winter
air before the frozen ground
can ever wake again to see
the warm green spring.
The flock of birds that leisurely ride
The soft wind that gazing to your mind
The heavenly glow of red that pride
Witnessing the departure of its kind.
The blue shrine for the loved
The clean crystal that shined
The clear water that waved
Into your awful good mind.
We looked far beyond the earth
We searched across the heaven
We sought through the widest girth
Until we found what we were given.
The fading fogs of life
The shading parts of soul
The evading piece of strife
Invading me the foul.
Yes, I'm the one
Who yelled for the dawn
Yet does the dusk
Yawn and I'm gone.
The flock of birds that leisurely ride
The soft wind that gazing to your mind
The heavenly glow of red that pride
Witnessing the departure of its kind.
The blue shrine for the loved
The clean crystal that shined
The clear water that waved
Into your awful good mind.
We looked far beyond the earth
We searched across the heaven
We sought through the widest girth
Until we found what we were given.
The fading fogs of life
The shading parts of soul
The evading piece of strife
Invading me the foul.
Yes, I'm the one
Who yelled for the dawn
Yet does the dusk
Yawn and I'm gone.
the mist attenuates mountains until distance inherits the burden of lost memory
A One-liner
Contest Judged: 8/28/2026 12:49:00 AM
Sponsored by: Suzette Richards
(1st Place)
Cold rain hides my tears
The silence knows all my pain
Hope fades with the rain
As sunlight slides behind the hill,
The world turns lax with fading light,
A quiet hush begins to spill.
As sunlight slides behind the hill,
Ongoing day's work can roost still,
Shadows lengthen with coming night.
As sunlight slides behind the hill,
The world turns lax in fading light.
The breath, dead silent
no pulse ahead, no way back
shadows lengthen, day is done
No more to explore
no more to hope nor to yearn
just fading light at day`s end.
A hill that's
about to vanish
with a spark
reflecting
from a loner's home
scintillating
like a star.
When I was a kid,
the hill was loftier,
was a landmark
to locate my school
from the roof of our house.
Unlike back then,
it‘s in a tortured state
like counting down
the leftover
years of life
along with
a solitary glow
portraying
the last hope.
So intensely I loved you,
And in the heat of passion I was burned,
Like a tree caught by surprise,
By the traps of fire that devours all nature in its turn.
Slowly I won you over,
As the sun courts the day with care,
As the moon dims the warmth away,
And the sky, defeated, empties into air.
So your coldness cooled me down,
The passion faded, the light grew pale,
Leaving bruises born of emptiness,
Of uncertainty and a love that fell silent without a tale.
Every memory, a faithful witness
Of a feeling never truly lived or fed,
Hope departed, and with it Cupid fled,
Leaving only the echo… of cold silence, lost and dead.
I watched my bedroom fold into dimmer light,
The mirror learned to flinch away from sight,
My name slipped off the wall like fading chalk,
Home turned its face and forgot how to talk.
The hallway hummed a hollow, distant tone,
Like every echo learned to leave me alone,
My heartbeat frayed into the brittle air,
As every inner voice dissolved in a scare.
My hands forgot the weight of being home,
I felt myself recede, begin to roam,
A stranger leaned inside my borrowed skin,
And quietly erased the girl within.
The street exhales in measured, patient light,
Where footsteps keep a cadence soft and slow,
An I, a witness to the day, walk on—
While somewhere in my mind, a name begins to grow.
A stone appears where none was set before,
Its surface pale with weather, time, and loss;
No hands in sight, yet carved with patient care—
A name, a date, and silence etched across.
It feels so close, yet too far to reach,
As if the thought itself has learned to wait;
A whispered echo at the edge of speech,
Where life and stillness almost hesitate.
A though intrudes, unbidden, keen, and still,
It settles where the quiet held its form;
Not summoned by intent, yet marks the will,
A distant tremor in an unseen storm.
I measure life against what time unthreads,
Each breath a brief inscription on the air;
The body writes what memory still treads,
And fades into the grammar of the bare.
And still I walk, the cadence kept and known,
The sky unchanged, though meanings rearrange;
What lingers is not lost, but overgrown,
A quiet thought, persistent, yet estranged.
I must have gazed at him slowly wandering
Along a bushy stream, his locks breeze-tossed
With cheeks a reddish rush, rugged like fall --
This woodsman lounging among the grass
His sunlit face wearing off into a gloom.
Beneath a tangled pine from which musk scent
Grew drowsy like his shirt cast down,
Behind the rays, deep was his discontent.
And watching this shadow from the vine,
His look ...sad cascading through leaves,
More sad than black,or all that black can pour.
Our eyes locked briefly, this sudden glance
Of dimming chance...I moved away...
Adored privately, I longed to hold those arms
Where splashed the murmur of this
my heart's veins ;
With all that throbbing did I implore...not now,
As calm sorrow drained from his
mystic charm.
5th Place Premier
The legend of fading stars,
their fame sinking like a rock.
With such passion in their eyes,
back when pictures couldn't talk.
As the lights of the city,
shining brighter and brighter.
The stars wear their coats of grey,
When pulling an all-nighter.
When watching a tv show,
and the receptions a miss.
I remember watching the moon,
but not missing...the kiss!
'
Broken is the heart
that sought shelter in thine hands.
I mistook beauty for loyalty,
and gratitude for love.
What hurts most—
I glimpsed a future in us.
Can I say I gave it my all?
Did it ever feel enough?
Far enough to notice,
close enough to linger…
© Rahim Moon 2026
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