Pinned Post
For this challenge, write one or more horror haiku set in a familiar place after it has emptied.
Let the poem carry a feeling of unease, intrusion, or quiet wrongness, and a sense that something has been left behind — or is waiting.
Guidelines:
Traditional haiku form (5–7–5 syllables)
Post as many haiku as you like
Suggestion over explanation — keep it subtle
Let your narrator speak with total confidence.
Of course they were justified. Anyone would have done the same.
No confessions.
No guilt.
No apologies.
The real terror slips in through the logic—the calm, convincing way they explain themselves.
The Horror of the Pickle Murder
Yes, she had to die,
you asked me why?
I must admit to you,
It's not because of
anything she did.
But rather because
of what she didn't do.
Everyday of the year
for the last twenty years,
since I was diagnosed
with high blood pressure,
she refused to give me
a dill pickle with my
lunch or supper.
And she would sit there
across from me slurping
and crunching, teasing me,
as she ate her dill pickle.
So I got up and crossed
to the stove, picked up the pan
and bashed her head in.
And I ate her pickle, it was good.
I pray they have pickles in prison.
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(Crazy note: this is fiction, but pre-internet and mostly forgotten. In the 1950s, 1960s and 70s, we had lots of crazy murders similar this one in Connecticut.)
From my stage show performances three years running at the Innsmouth Literary Festival please see the link to my collection of Lovecraftian comic poetry. Mythos entities face first world problems as suggested by the audience https://amzn.eu/d/6v1fIZT
Write a horror poem centred on something that watches you when you’re alone. It doesn’t have to be a monster—it could be a presence, a memory, a house, a god, a shadow, or your own reflection. The key is unease. Make the reader feel seen in the worst possible way.
Guidelines:
Focus on atmosphere, dread, and lingering imagery.
Suggestion is often more terrifying than gore—use what you don’t show.
Any poetic form is welcome (free verse, structured, prose poetry, experimental).
Keep it original and written for ShadowSphere.
What Ever Happened to Safe Sex
Something went thump in the night.
Her bed shook, but not out of fright.
I reached for her bedside light.
Startled by a grotesque sight,
I contemplated too long, what might?
Doing nothing wasn't bright,
I ended up and awful sight.
It was too late to save myself,
Now, I'm stuck here on a shelf.
My body parts in different jars
I think each one will not go far.
I should not have tempted fate
An axe murderer is a lousy date.
Her jokes really were a cut up.
I never expected to be chopped up.
Dark Initiate
Consistent Chiller
Dark Initiate
Consistent Chiller
Dark Initiate
Dark Initiate
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below textbook shelves
beneath floorboards blood puddles
no longer shushing
----
too close a shaved neck
warm towel wraps sleeping face
after hours dustbin
----
at midnight howling
heard along a narrow park path
blood stains lost in rain