Morning of April 22, 2024

freedom

on the other side

of an open door

~Jennifer Gurney

no doctors lurking in the apple orchard

~petro c. k.

apparently money doesn’t grow on trees

                                                                         cherry blossoms

~Joshua St. Claire

pause in the relationship girlfriend in a comma

~petro c. k.

crisis of absolutely everything bagel

~petro c. k.

Ghost Walk

A beam, opens up the shadowy

misty, nighttime sadness beyond

the casket of the temporary.

Filled with hidden, earthly treasures.

Then, you appear, pale, opaque,

playing in my mind, on repeat.

~Keith Snow

he stumbles on the line

circus tightrope walker fails

the police sobriety test

~John J. Dunphy

unable

to keep noise out

I let silence in

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

spiral staircase

the vertigo of

twisted truths

~Leon Tefft

people are complicated

people are dead

people keep being

like a hammer to the head

~Noah Berlatsky

frosted windows

clearly visible

memory loss

~Leon Tefft

inflation

just a few more

cherry blossoms

~Joshua St. Claire

No line that I have written

will ever be remembered.

No, not this one.

No, not this one either.

~Noah Berlatsky

Afternoon of April 19, 2024

 

 

 

 

change of clothes —

every year it's a month earlier

~Maurizio Brancaleoni

“Caravaggio!

The power’s out again.”

“Who cares?

I’ve got a candle

and a job lot

of black paint.”

~Tony Dawson

birthdays

those Facebook friends

long dead

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

a slave desires freedom

a caged bird dreams of a heaven

~Fhen M.

to exercise free press

is never a given

~Fhen M.

one weaves a silken flag

to freely wave it is another thing

~Fhen M.

Stormy nights

At mid-morgue and

My shaky legs outside

crawling to closet.

But where is the threshold?

~Partha Sarkar

With acute poverty the poor —

The priceless commodities

In an election-

The democratic business

Without knowing why.

~Partha Sarkar

sailing into port wine

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Nuggets in ketchup blood

Burger from a killed pig

The grill is working at full capacity

Scorching the planet

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

The ultimate loneliness of death

A cat runs across the road at a red traffic light

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

the mouse ate the sun instead of cheese

glass grew instead of grass

rusty skeletons of snowflakes warm the remains of a nuclear power plant

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

shopping centre

a customer queueing

behind the mannequins

~Tuyet Van Do

fashion show

the model wears

an upside-down dress

~Tuyet Van Do

each morning

a 30% chance

of something

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

the sack  brown bag days

~Adrian Bouter

you flee

or you stay

flea

~Adrian Bouter

Morning of April 19, 2024

western medicine

padlocking

my ankle to the grave

~Kelly Moyer

rain-drenched milkweed

the prayer

that plummets into the ether

~Kelly Moyer

slow love

tilling

the worm dirt

~Kelly Moyer

diagnoses:  everything but the kitchen sink of her bones

~Kelly Moyer

country road

a swallowtail lights

on the edge of oblivion

~Kelly Moyer

transmigration

the dead poet's

fresh set of eyes

~Kelly Moyer

fasting casting

aside the black cloak

of worldly wants

~James Penha

garbed in ego’s shroud

its tombstone on his head—

spinning with atoms

~James Penha

dance love music

poetry

circle perfection

~James Penha

with your head

on my chest

I can hear

through your skull

the sound

of you chewing

the chips

I bought you

~Noah Berlatsky

quality self-help

exploring your nether spork

authentic upgrade

~Noah Berlatsky

the light

in the school chapel:

stained

~Stephen Toft

a lawn sprinkler

cooling

this sultry night

~Stephen Toft

snow bones

the old sheepdog

rounding up ghosts

~Stephen Toft

one day i hope

to see again the blue

i once saw on

the Hawaiian shirt

of a man drowned at sea

~Stephen Toft

cloudless sky

the acrobat

looks through me

~Stephen Toft

Afternoon of April 16, 2024

Earth on a

stack of turtles

then more turtles

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

life

clue

war

sorry

indoor recess

~Jennifer Gurney

for you darling

would I divide

by zero forever

~Richard Magahiz

visitation over —

he removes his wife's wedding ring

before closing the coffin

~John J. Dunphy

footsteps

out of synch with mine

we both start to run

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Fearsome predators

A shark subsisting on abandoned dreams

The orange mold that grows on the face you no longer wear

A hookworm that sucks the joys of forgotten days

Pale mysterious bears craving unrecognized sacrifice

Scorpions drawn to any unmet potential

~Richard Magahiz

my hands

how many nanometers

to your moon?

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

jewelled knees elbows that beat kicks in

~Richard Magahiz

such a relief

when the key

fits the lock

~Jennifer Gurney

312th floor:

window walls squeegee

themselves

~Richard Magahiz

9 lives, 20 naps a day

sounds like a good plan

~Jay Passer

boomerangs

act just like some mail

return to sender

~Chris Collins

low to high

inch marks on the wall

empty nest

~Kavita Ratna

bird shadow flew

   through me and a lizard

she dove under a log

   I was only mildly disturbed

~Steve Van Allen

the bodies hang out tin signs     quetzal birds swoop past

~Richard Magahiz

pavement

returns to lime and sand

wordlessly birds call

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

 

 

Evening of April 15, 2024

 

fried egg and sausage

seeing my future

death stare

~Melissa Dennison

NUCLEAR

A little bit

of havoc and

a little bit of hell

is my idea of heaven

which is really

just as well in

a cockroach world.

~Lindsay McLeod

I did hear them say

the words "amplifying you"

Is it size or sound?

~Charles A. Perrone

UNBUTTERED

Now the thing we had in

the toaster has popped and

the smoke alarm is being...

melodramatic.

So I set to scraping the

burn from the bread

only to find that,

all I have left is the knife.

~Lindsay McLeod

one haiku moment

deserves another

double espresso latte

~Robert Epstein

Firm Commitment

vampires prefer their victims al dente

~John H. Dromey

is that a devil entendre

~Robert Epstein

Lack of Closure

three body problem

hitman’s compact car

teeny weeny trunk

~John H. Dromey

resonance

magnet orchestral tune

probes to the core

~J.L. Huffman

Luna's desk covers Sol

the king as the sunlike

trembles in fear.

~Fhen M.

solar eclipse—

what you hide from me

has its days numbered

~Nicoletta Ignatti

There's this cat who's sort of bold

He demands to be treated like gold

Forgetting the days he was a stray

In the backyard where he'd stay

Now he's used to all his meals bowled

~Jackie Chou

murder of crows

arrested motion

hangman’s rope drops

~J.L. Huffman

GENU FLECKS

She said she inherited

her cool from me and

her lies from her mother

so now I don't really

know whether to

believe her or not.

~Lindsay McLeod

family reunion—

the popcorn explodes

in the pan

~Nicoletta Ignatti

SOFT ALARM

Woken again by the scarlet fever

a visceral word through

the heartless receiver

I wondered how long since

I'd dared that voice when I

heard my catastrophe call.

~Lindsay McLeod

fly me to the moon

and house me with the other

introverts

~Robert Epstein

Afternoon of April 10, 2024

 

beginning to learn my bit part in the cosmic peekaboo

~Patrick Sweeney

unless I am corrupt never it could not

~J. D. Nelson

the mystical ardor in which she picks up a stone

~Patrick Sweeney

in the tree canopy nesting warheads

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

scraping the full-belly comments in the garbage can

~Patrick Sweeney

black mail blots in my lover’s copybook

~Patricia Hawkhead

fly is lectured idea rays

~J. D. Nelson

spider sense

at the base of my skull

the cup of his hand

~Patricia Hawkhead

A weather forecast—

It will not rain in some days.

Suddenly it began to storm and rain.

I bow down to nature—

The unpredictable met office.

~Partha Sarkar

highways closed yet

wind speeds at 100

miles per hour

~Jennifer Gurney

street art

canvases abandoned

at the curb

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

listen bub, unloading their carts

nobody wants a lecture

on the history of cinnamon

~Patrick Sweeney

Those

are not

my

packages.

~Noah Berlatsky

all these years, the number of leaves on a shamrock

~Patrick Sweeney

spoon fed thin soup indeed

~dan smith

in eschatological terror of long-range planning

~Patrick Sweeney

sliced green apple praying hands

~J. D. Nelson

the Uber driver has a solution to the smash and grab

~Patrick Sweeney

Afternoon of April 9, 2024

 

Social Anxiety

Approach social structures:

Fall apart immediately.

~Thomas Skahill

People travel hundreds of miles

for 4 minute eclipse

crosstown visit to see grandma too far

~Peter A. Witt

5 fleas

on the cold moon

dancing to spring

~Elliot Diamond

total eclipse

animals and endtimers

run for cover

~David Josephsohn

MTG says eclipse is warning from god

god says MTG needs a fact check

~Peter A. Witt

And how did it happen

that the sun and moon are in the same sky?

~Fhen M.

Duck, duck, duck

goose, goose, goose

splatter, spatter, splatter

doesn't matter, matter, matter

~Peter A. Witt

old frog

the sound of water

or ChatGPT

~Noah Berlatsky

Razor blades work better

than rollerblades when shaving

~Peter A. Witt

Almost every Easter, even though no spring chicken, I have a challenge with Easter eggs.

sugar moon

needing some sort of self control

chocolate Easter eggs

~Madeleine Kavanagh

palm reading the future I never wanted to know

~Mona Bedi

what katydid beneath the moon

~Tracy Davidson

dragons in the phoenix nest

your tax dollars

at work

~Mike Fainzilber

from irresistible

to invisible

middle age

~Mike Fainzilber

Kegari

Oh and no,

as yet I mold

an old

ugly soul

born for need

of control.

~Thomas Skahill

childhood…

when fairy tales

were a reality

~Mona Bedi