Today’s prompt, is inspired by Teicher’s poem “Son“. One thing you might notice about this poem is that it is sad, but that it doesn’t generate that feeling through particularly emotional words. The words are very simple. Another thing you might notice is that it’s a sonnet – not in strict iambic pentameter, but fourteen rhymed, relatively short lines.

Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own sad poem, but one that, like Teicher’s, achieves sadness through simplicity. 

I think I drifted to the extreme of sadness or horror, if I may call it. I leave it to you to decide…

I wish I hadn’t gone out




The door was closed

But not locked

Just a little push

And it swung open

To reveal the tale of last two hours

Prints of shoes dipped in mud

Stood apart on the white marble

“These cannot be my footprints”

Was my first thought

“Did I not clean the floor before going to the store?”

The answer shook me

The realization set in

I scurried to the living room

Books scattered on the floor

Cushions torn apart

Pieces of broken glass

Pricked my toes

My heart skipped a beat

I heard her moans

Cries of utter pain

I dashed to our room to find her on the floor

“Was she dead?”

“Where was her hair? Why did she look bald?”

“Oh my God! She was missing even her hands!”

My feet were soaked in blood as I made my way to her

A closer look

And a shiver ran down my spine

Her face mutilated

Her body brutalized

As if each body part had been carefully impaired

I fell apart at that ghastly sight

She was his target for the day

The psychopath on loose

Who was all over the news

Had raped and battered my gorgeous wife


                                 ©Vandana Bhasin