By Scott Bailey © 2026
We like to lounge in leisure
Crash in comfort
Sound and secure
Until we forget
It’s all armour
A shield against the horror
Just remember
One day
We have to open the door
And step out
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Some people have highways
Others fly in their jets
Some leap into space
For the rest
We are trapped
In the cul-de-sac maze
Into which we were born
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DU0mUSckhwd?xmt=AQF0tstuE-kkyHmW1wZMbfUT8pXHP6aCnk-Wn1X4JVvUqLx3afMhG2upBe8GEwB03q3X61BH&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
It gathers like wool
In a vale
Golden light
Emanating warmth
Through the mist
And so they come
Congregate around the glow
Until they go
Back into the world
Fulfilled
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
By Scott Bailey © 2026
The distant friction of cars passing
Fading away, as traffic dwindled
Like light seeping away in the sunset
Soon, the last one will pass
And the world will be left alone
In peace and healing
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DUs2meVjXNA?xmt=AQF0jLQ9FkU0XiwoG7hDGp89OBgoZuLt_Yh4fKQjwLd2FQ4RaxvP5sPfwG6U3k1R5X-V2Ds&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
The skin is thin
The father, the worker, the responsible
Peel it away
And there’s the fear, the weariness, the despair
Barely held back
Deeper still is the yearning
To shed it all
To sing and dance and play
Without a care
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DUqVcwagnzH?xmt=AQF0psI13VHVW0jWrPaRp-Qr0YkIBUVbJbNFbuaYwA_PgY1ljMHON7P7_7LFU_IEGcwcrLPW&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
For the love of the fear
We wake
Enter the fray
Surely
That’s right?
Isn’t it?
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DUnx0VEgg9W?xmt=AQF0_ujwR_zcbcBrwl8mQPFdLnAURGKwcJGT-FT681Z4aOjw2dG5BJIkqUr6wlfAnwi14Q8&slof=1
Scott Bailey © 2026
Words
Transferred
From mind
To mind
From nothing
To
Eternity
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
By Scott Bailey © 2026
It was a wonderful day
That they came
Bringing their science from the sky
Removing our problems
No more disease
No more poverty
Immortality
I wonder how
We’ll screw this up
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
By Scott Bailey © 2026
There is a God
Whose soul is bursting
With empathy and compassion
Whose very smile is sunlight
That blesses the earth
Nurtures life and love
Whose heartbeat is time itself
Whose breath is the breeze that soothes
Whose tears feed the Seas
That God sleeps.
When that God is needed
What do we need
To end that slumber?
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DUYUsmFiLj7?xmt=AQF0927nS7H2yMaElMLS2vsMCh8nltPJfVl7v9dS84UmaOnPLeTHoXoJGusu4yRyo6jUn_eB&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Greatness is within me
I am the one you all need
Victory will come easy
Everyone just follow me
This is destiny
High and mighty
Everyone says so
My path is clear
Our victory assured
Never doubt
Everyone trusts me, so
You just need to give me your credit card number
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DUVtpLmiMhE?xmt=AQF0usIhR5B8Bb7Vy-nuxyxnz7fn5T36BgcUK60-huv51W41oBcIazwSADXLj_9HfzktvOc&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
I have laid my transgressions in the arms of the past
Hoping
That the weight of time
Will bury them
Until they’re forgotten
It’s what we hope
But some transgressions
Are too big
To bury
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DUTKOz4kl2p?xmt=AQF0Qk78uCCQ3eONcDlCeq7ZGzoqTaREfvvHMSZ2YcwmmWZiCmJelzp_OnzIUxWCbM7sKtY&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
The poem
The words
Incisive
Inspired
That can reach into hearts
Change minds
Shift history
Leave the world a better place
That’s the poem
That, to my shame
I cannot write
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
Scott Bailey © 2026
Gazing in awe
At the piercing stars
Light that reaches the deep
Of my heart
There is comfort in the night
In the soft distance of sounds
As the world
Sighs
There is comfort in the night
While you avoid the dawn
And what the light will reveal
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DULgUFKk5_8?xmt=AQF0vuqEMfh_k0RyMpHgD-RPmGrVxfkEteRN0ltILdq0Jo2EnvyJfNrY3EO2LwXR6MUuIY8&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
I came from stability
So I crave it
I came from poverty
Where I am stuck
I came from love
So I know how to feel
Where did these
Clueless politicians
Come from?
What will they leave us?
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DUDxhMlCIyP?xmt=AQF0AsMPUEp-I94lTywrz95lFEl5XjRM8FlAu6yvbg-ona6j45UhwmKD2ZVrrQRCi_94PbaN&slof=1
By Scott Bailey
The screen is a lense
Narrow focused and personal
Stare at it for long enough
It becomes a mirror in reverse
As you become the reflection
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DUBNzsQEuLN?xmt=AQF0ejCbmEiWqikZIwx4a5dwG8pBd3FtIFzW5nqovncIySkcOjNmz_42pXkAemnh4gmnEfVS&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
This poem
Could be the blue touch paper
If I could think of the words
Instead
I have to watch
As three hundred and forty three million souls
Fail
To find even one
To outwit
A blithering idiot
Maybe?
Light it?
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DT-nTeKgEBe?xmt=AQF0ELwmhYjmD6LEtk05kFLGeAYDu5eBzzu-pXkni5fjAhOIPf7HnsL3KFt06L4T6gBc5g8V&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Welcome
To all
Intelligent chat
Imagination
Philosophers
These are my people
All across the land
And in my heart
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Flipping through faces
Up for adoption
Trying to choose
How have we come to this?
That there’s so much choice
And how can they smile?
Through their trauma
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Loyalty when viewed
Within the circle seems sane
From without, madness
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTvKjIJkVTn?xmt=AQF0HVVYgB82VQcmPIxwgn6aSI4s6eajZKxDYAYW0S3pp528AISiVyKLj3wv9QtpTJFRxxjq&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Peace and quiet
And security
Family provided for
No demands
Whisky and a good book
A simple dream
Yet so far distant
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTsmJw5Dmgq?xmt=AQF0P7fSOmFmNtMVNlbxfuLVfRx4BvIVyOWfTiyuRX7qgBSYMQK52W1t98AbOiSGO6sJetIU&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Death of a dream
Is tragic for a single soul
For a nation
Desolation
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTqD3NXDO8r?xmt=AQF0ciePxLrPdGHP6DGMCxy2nTwKswIsc1XhlT-K6Nli7BRkRRPauX4qhMZCJDF9PcPsYoZ0&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Like a tree,
I will not move
Though the fire
rages on
Roots are deep,
branches high
Rising high
beneath the sky
Like a stone,
from past ages
Weathered smooth
by the rain
Storms will come
and they’ll go
While I watch,
sure and slow
Like the earth
and the sky
I watch
and I
wonder why
You descend
into ire
To welcome
your own pyre
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTk1DAjEQNh?xmt=AQF0d0AXis9gMGC_TQP9fW9jXMRZCeufWNBLvdaHMcH51zY0xd9KAqdXDjR_XkMARSW4V_g&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Safe
At last
Six feet of earth
Between me
And the madness
Up there
How did I live through it
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
By Scott Bailey © 2026
The river was swift today
Swollen by the snows
Dancing and leaping on its inexorable course
I wonder
If it could sweep away my aches and pains
My sorrows and my stress
Could the sea accept them?
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTVZ8MNjIvb?xmt=AQF01KbeEDCHTUus1GL7g7QuD2jxSq2BHeNdAdxpgl58Wp14unFU9sFK3lqVRgiWD6aufk1T&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Those nights
Hazy, noisy, filled with cheers and beers
They were amongst my fondest memories
Now those nights
Are tinged with sorrow and guilt
They were the red flags we failed to see
Those nights
Were the peak before the decline
What could we have said to save you?
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTSzXGmAnOe?xmt=AQF0kn4EzqdMFFhP0F4HBdFsZjtnz8RXes_0HFEfF4HYZ4BwL73g6stC9737y1yuwlApCSA&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
I want back
The future I was promised
The rewards
For years of dedication, loyalty, determination
The share of the fruits of my labour
Instead
We have the emptiness
That was always
Behind the lies
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTQNfWHgqCW?xmt=AQF0AVJbQkkLzqJyO8c77M7OauJEjiSFMDR4GsroOerTYKbTxvQ1J1_YihrMxTk9H91UUYKe&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Hands were proffered
Slapped away
Invites offered
I said, not today
If only
If only
If only
I would not be grieving
Eluded joy
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTLC85djCRF?xmt=AQF0uoQKfXRNFAMGGG4K2zGIsJlHtlHGB1rSJCqw16opDUYRbif9LA-xASAcDq_A6tuz-48&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Step by step
Trembling, shuffling
Step by step
On the narrow span of stone
Stretching off into darkness
Unknown length
Vertigo threatening
Trembling, shuffling
Step by step
Pressed forward
By the weight of the crowd behind
Who need you
To continue
Step by step
Trembling, shuffling
Not courage
Not duty
Just the weight of need
Of the others
In response to malformed_poetry’s prompt
https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTIfNARjrqN?xmt=AQF00EwUoDRZLgvJfRRUMgEpyIo4jjUpkaSiZN2_r39zpmEwXg4NXYUti925aq459pARpFm_&slof=1
By Scott Bailey © 2026
An empty affair
And it meant nothing I swear
The heart stays broken
In response to malformed_poetry’s pompt
By Scott Bailey © 2026
An elephant.
Rendered by time and water
And wanting minds
Myths and legends might arise
Tales of the transformation from flesh to stone
Of the final, enduring, beast
Long after the last real elephant
Has been forgotten
In response to: https://www.threads.com/@malformed_poetry/post/DTAx0UQDCgS?xmt=AQF0FyV3mRIiPxTaOZonNRwewCckhS8cfH468GY1w2E8hfAIJyv4084_D40x8iX14N_zmRQ&slof=1
So, I am undertaking another poetry challenge by trying to respond to the daily prompt by malformed_poetry on threads (check them out!). I will reply their on the thread but will post here too.
I may or may not succeed, I am putting no pressure on myself. Just trying to get the juice flowing again.
By Scott Bailey © 2026
Those who see
Are frozen with fear
Drowning in syrup
As the future approaches
Wondering what can we do.
What can we do?
Scott Andrew Bailey - Author 