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@thebrokenspine.co.uk Oct 4, 2026, 5:00 AM

Next up: #Bites. Teeth. Hunger. Desire. Warning. The mark left afterwards. And all the things capable of biting without having a mouth. New theme begins Friday. Don’t post early. Use Alt Text. Tag #PoemsAbout. Read. Repost. Reply.

@stacebot.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 1:36 AM

For this week's #PoemsAbout #Rot I'm thinking about another way something can die while surrounded by what it needs. Not rot, exactly.

@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

#prompt #poetry #blueskypoetry #writesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poets #creativewriting

winter burn

this is how an evergreen dies of thirst.
the water is there.
under six inches of frozen ground
the roots,
surrounded by it.
all winter
the needles keep giving
what the roots
cannot replace.
first
they turn gold.
we call them beautiful.
then brown.
by spring
everyone can see
the brown.
underground
nothing
was ever missing.

@zentinl.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 11:44 PM

October moved me to a second one for #PoemsAbout #rot
Grateful to @alanparrywriter.co.uk & @thebrokenspine.co.uk for keeping us posting.

#poetrycommunity #poetry #poem #poems #skypoets #blueskypoets #blueskypoetry #poetsofbluesky #skypoet #writingcommunity

@danigracewrites.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 6:04 PM

⬆️
#WritingPrompt 4:

#BookologyThursday
#ThursThreads
#TankaThursday
#SFFChat
#WeeknightWriters
#LateNightWrite
#SciFiFri
#FridayFlashFics
#FragmentsFriday
#FaveLineFriday
#BornBattleReady
#PoemsAbout
#LesFicFri
#QueerWritersChat
#VSSMagic
#SciFiSat
#Fantaiku
#ScifaikuSaturday
#HaikuSaturday

⬇️

@spankymcboo.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 3:51 PM

Just a quick one I did for the Rot prompt @thebrokenspine.co.uk
#PoemsAbout #rot

@spankymcboo.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 3:44 PM

#poemsabout #rot @thebrokenspine.co.uk

@daveashleypoet.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 2:59 PM

#PoemsAbout
#Rot #SelfHatred #freeverse
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
#Poetry

@talahreed.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 2:11 PM

I threw them out at half past nine.
In the bin
they looked divine.

#poemsabout #rot #flowers

@philippabowe.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 12:35 PM

Another quickie for #PoemsAbout and the #Rot prompt. Apologies for lack of engagement but am deep deep in a writing retreat and staying mostly offline - normal service will resume next week!
Thanks as ever to @thebrokenspine.co.uk and @alanparrywriter.co.uk 🙏

White letters of a prose poem on a black background:

The Plum

The plum was much too big and kept getting bigger, too vast to fit in our small fierce mouths, we would never get it past our teeth. We scratched drum-tight purple skin with our hungry nails but no flesh seeped through, our scratching left twisted runes to be deciphered by someone not us. We Sisyphus-ed the plum to the top of the mountain and watched it roll back down flattening everything in its way, rotting as it went.

Large purple plum sitting on a white and blue tiled surface.

@stacebot.bsky.social Oct 3, 2026, 6:10 AM

For this week's #PoemsAbout #Rot I'm thinking about how far a memory can spread before we stop calling it memory.

@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

#prompt #poetry #blueskypoetry #writesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poets #creativewriting

rot

still
i lie awake
to look at your
side of the bed
the light knows
you are not there
but i don't
stop seeing you
the face
comes first
a pale pause
above the pillow
your breath
against my mouth
the shape of a body
occupying the dark
i know you are not here
still
i wait
see if you'll move

@deemclachlan.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 9:41 PM

A poem here from a new #blueskypoet
Something for the @thebrokenspine.co.uk #poemsabout #rot

#poetrycommunity #gothicpoets

@alexdwrites.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 6:03 PM

For #PoemsAbout #Rot

Or perhaps poems about avoiding it?

@thebrokenspine.co.uk

Perfect Fix

Under her enamel-black sunglasses
The Gorgon smiles.
Mounted on a fine mechanical chassis,
She swaggers
Down through the statue gallery.

"Darling, I can save you,
Whatever the problem is, whatever the time.
Doesn't everyone
Just want one perfect moment?

The other way
Is out there in that churchyard.
Did you know
The ground there's three foot higher
With a thousand years of stinking?

Inelegant. And here's me can offer better
Than Nefertiti had.

Not even the expense of a monument.
Lean languidly over this urn
And look at the roses.

I picked the poor things yesterday, so hurry.
Soon they will start to wilt."

@fhpowellwriter.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 4:50 PM

#PoemsAbout #Rot #poetry
@alanparrywriter.co.uk

@thebrokenspine.co.uk

@thebisylarke.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 4:19 PM

my offering this lovely fall friday for #PoemsAbout #Rot
@thebrokenspine.co.uk
I could probably write into this prompt endlessly, as a certified #RotEnjoyer, but this poem came out of me trying to write against some of the themes i tend to write into

i hope autumn is treating you all well so far!

AGAINST YEARNING

i try to think
against yearning, to call
my power back, to press it hard
against my hopeless romantic
heart and my escapist tendencies
and my penchant for devotional
drowning, but when i try to swim
against that current, i find myself
caught in the swell, despite my
practiced doggy paddle,
my easy floating.

i try to write
against yearning, creating strict
routines and mandates on desire,
but my desire leads me back to
the muddy muse. i try not to
rot like a red leaf sinking
into this puddle
of sickly autumn rain…

but what else can rot do but rot?
what else does life do but decay?
what else does eros do
but chase?

i try to feel
something, anything
but this loathsome yearning
but i find myself
in my grayest fantasies,
leaning in to kiss a dream.

i find myself
pressing up against a ghost.

i try to work
against yearning
but it swallows me
and goddamn,
do i want nothing more
than to be devoured.

i try to push
this yearning away
but i am so good
at waiting, and yearning
always comes to those who wait.
sometimes, something else does.
most days, nothing comes,
especially not me.

i try to live
against yearning
but of course, i always find myself
against yearning, skin on skin,
heart to heart, cheek to cheek,
if only in my stray dog dreams.

the more i lean into
this solitary love affair,
the more i think
i wouldn’t change a thing.

@johnchmura.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 4:13 PM

Oh yeah, a big shout out to #PoemsAbout poet, @vientoverde.bsky.social, who made frogpondfriday on FB. I am also in issue 49.2!!! I hope they post my ku someday! I think I sense some #rot in there, too!!!

@seanjbates.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 4:12 PM

@thebrokenspine.co.uk #PoemsAbout #Rot

"Who Ever Heard That The Devil Was Dead?"

@luaz.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 4:05 PM

Okay, #PoemsAbout #Rot, here's a thought. (Thanks to @thebrokenspine.co.uk and @alanparrywriter.co.uk )
Aftermath:

Aftermath

Now, a long slow lope toward death.
Not that kind of death
but the end of something
beginning something else.

Then, we look back through the door,
notice all the bullshit still reeking.
With buckets, shovels, machetes,
rakes, we go round it all up,

from trees from store shelves
from gutters from lawns. Rake it all into
a huge pile in a vacant mall
parking lot. Torch it.

Don’t breathe that smoke.
Not everything rotten
feeds the soil.

@johnchmura.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 4:01 PM

#PoemsAbout #Rot @thebrokenspine.co.uk
I think the great Bob Marley said it best:

every day a bucket a go a well
one day a bottom a go drop out