Afternoon of August 26, 2025

 


My musician friend

Is a
Roman
cathedral

made of
pawn shop
guitars

and empty
vodka bottles.

~Matthew Borczon




My writer friend

Writes letters
to his dead friends

and poems
for lost jobs

but can’t tell his
wife what’s wrong

so she no longer
bothers asking.

~Matthew Borczon




My war friend

Keeps a dog tag
laced into his work
boot to identify


him after he steps
on an IED

something
no one but

he thinks could happen

here in
Pennsylvania.


~Matthew Borczon




the ghostly image

of last night's haiku

has escaped me


~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky




famous for fifteen seconds

the time it takes

to read a haiku


~Charles Harmon




my ancestors

killing my ancestors

buffalo soldiers


~Charles Harmon




reliving our lives

dreaming of children

we never had


~Charles Harmon




dandelion apocalypse

at ninety

he surrenders


~Charles Harmon




Melting honey

On flour tortillas

Soft rain


~Sarah Mahina Calvello




Growing Up


After my dad died my mom told me to go home.

After my dad died my mom wanted to get back to her routine.

I went home.

 

They grow up and they leave you and they don’t need you any more.


~Noah Berlatsky




the sentence of life (,) (;) (:) (!) and (…) ending with (.)


~Pravat Kumar Padhy




artist’s cursive writing into the rising of waves


~Pravat Kumar Padhy




consciousness of the cosmos I am part of


~Pravat Kumar Padhy




all those finches and chickadees at my theoretical bird feeder


~Patrick Sweeney




how relaxing coal miners gossip with the midnight stars


~Pravat Kumar Padhy




folded and unfolded her soaked handkerchief


~Pravat Kumar Padhy




I've had any number of requests to stop asking unanswerable questions


~Patrick Sweeney




causes of continental drift:

half-credit for...

'Loneliness and escape'


~Patrick Sweeney




he's quoting Camus again

and listening

to The Cure


~Patrick Sweeney




multilingual...

belonging to a world

of petals

~Katherine E Winnick




a singing bird

most of their names

still unknown


~Tejendra Sherchan




Oil and Trouble (or Iraq is Back in Black)


We barrel forward to those 20 billion barrels

A narrow corridor to whet the greed for more

To bleed black gold into the sea where Black blood

Drove sharks to chase the feed.


The ‘Hel is repetition. Still, it proceeds.


~Chris Courtney Martin




winds of time sway

each grass blade to abandon

the field that raised

~Allen David Simon



The Psychophancy

more than just hands and feet

must be kissed


~dan smith




paralyzed

from a car wreck

he rises

from his wheelchair in

the zero-gravity room

~John J. Dunphy




Meh


A bursting

heart

eclipsed by

silhouette

of shrugged

shoulders.


~Chad Parenteau




Satire’s Swift Death


MY GOD

THEY’RE

EATING

ME

ALIVE!

(no joke)


~Chad Parenteau




Blank Page


An empty field
    gazes back,
meets the stare
       of uninspired eyes.

Mute accusations,
     a response lost
somewhere on the margin
           of a vacant lot.


~Bob Carlton




Compensation


In dying

we lose the galaxy

but gain the universe

in return.


~Bob Carlton




Act Accordingly


is is

the will be

of was


~Bob Carlton




Contemplating


Darkness closes over
     the sun,
and the night holds
           no promise
of any light
    but cold
                 dead
                          stars.


~Bob Carlton

 

Afternoon of August 21, 2025



 

our table of elements

expanded by three after

alien contact

~John J. Dunphy




jailbroke liberty // bite of the golden apple

~Nicholas De Marino




the last breath inflates  cathedral of my ribs

~Vijay Prasad




even though war clouds day lilies

~Arvinder Kaur




a version of me in sepia class of seventy

~Arvinder Kaur




wet face sweeping dead ants before breakfast

~Bernadette O' Reilly




we lean into each other Pisa photo

~Arvinder Kaur




there are no easy answers

if you keep asking questions like that

~Nicholas De Marino




Don't

     look,

          but

     a

poem

     just

          slithered

     across

your

     mind.

~Nicholas De Marino




hop scotch

tripping on shadows

between the lines

~Elliot Diamond




rogue orbit

unable to find

my North Star

~Stephanie Zepherelli




slowing down

i enter the flow

of cursive

~Stephanie Zepherelli




soaked battlefield

the only witness

a blood moon

~Stephanie Zepherelli




heavy footsteps

dragging yesterday

into tomorrow

~Stephanie Zepherelli




flamingoes

the way I shift

thoughts in shoes

~Richard L. Matta




sharing the ride

with the cabbie's lunch

heavy rain

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

 

 

failure to thrive ...

the movement and glow of lights

ten floors below

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

 


catching sun

around the pool

descendants of reptiles

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

 


my shadow

interacts with another's

fitting rooms

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

 


market's law

when supply is scarce

kidney in demand

~Tejendra Sherchan




Give Me A Break!


at 71

am I really expected

to call a Catholic priest

who is young enough

to be my grandson

"father"?

~John J. Dunphy




racing against the clock

dumpster diver hears

the garbage truck

~John J. Dunphy

 


Afternoon of August 17, 2025


 

rooster crows

at noon...

the globe spins

~Kavita Ratna




clay models

of herbivores and carnivores

living in harmony

~Tejendra Sherchan




hot road

the dancing beard of a

goat

~Kavita Ratna




alas, words were exchanged - 

some heard, some unheard, 

some understood, others not so much

but, each damned

       each piercing 

       each more condemned than the other... 

 

        wedding vows were exchanged 

~Allen David Simon




cemetery visit . . .

the cell reception

lives on

~Barrie Levine



broken Barbie

both of us in need of

knee replacements

~Barrie Levine




Hoover


Can be a noun

and a verb.


Wound & vac are

two words that

should never be

side by side.


Troubleshooting

that machine

is trouble.


Dam!

~Keith Snow




World of dewdrops

Wrap around geraniums

Surviving cold

~Sarah Mahina Calvello




Put me down

In history

People are stranger

~Sarah Mahina Calvello




This room

Full of empty space

I need to be loud

~Sarah Mahina Calvello




Down we go

Alice

Seasons change

~Sarah Mahina Calvello




Overdue Notice


Your final embrace was due January first. You

have missed several terms already. The cost

goes up each year, and standard interest

rates apply. The sooner you comply

with outstretched arms, the more

forgiveness you will merit.

Do not tarry, for death

will not settle.

~Carol Barret




Discovery


I approach through a tunnel of Lodgepole Pine, needles

underfoot. As I climb the last dune before sea grass

disappears, the ocean turns up the volume. I see

miles north and south. A dog trots alongside a red truck.

Another leads his master’s yellow van, almost pulling it

through sand and broken shells, eager to elongate the sun.

Few walkers about. One bent man in a dark hood

carries a blue bag, pokes his stick with each stride.

He does not scan the waves, but stops to assess

a rib of driftwood, as if yearning for a lost child.

~Carol Barret




my gel pen

stays silent

drought

~Shasta Hatter




new spice mix

at the supermarket

a small adventure

~Shasta Hatter




We can't fix a car

with a hammer or obtain

Peace by making war

~Sasha Clark




I love to express

myself in the dancing words

of poetry song

~Sasha Clark




physicists say

ninety six percent

of universe is made up of

something we don't know

maybe it's love

~Tejendra Sherchan




a cosmogony wherein

the hit-and-run driver always returns

to Vogdes Street

~Patrick Sweeney



so far off topic

that neither one of us knew what

we were originally discussing

~Patrick Sweeney



sorry I'm late,

missed an eyelet

had to relace

~Patrick Sweeney



her passing clouds stop

~John Hawkhead




every hand raised but mine

~Patrick Sweeney



(g)hostess with the mostess

~Barrie Levine




the rayed arc of Friday night

--71 movies in progress and eleven unread tomes in the Western canon

~Patrick Sweeney



body popping a blister pack of blows

~John Hawkhead




at the Nimitz Library

it just got easier for cadets to avoid reading

about the Holocaust

~Patrick Sweeney