Afternoon of April 11, 2026

Theme: Revenge, vendettas, grudges, feuds, rivalries, etc

Fiction: Up to 10,000 words (all genres)  /  Poetry: Up to 10 standard manuscript pages

The older you get

the more each new moment

recalls an old

humiliation.

~Noah Berlatsky

Spilling wine

On chocolate dirt

On murmuring roots

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

dewy morning

forgotten in the fairy ring

a plastic wand

~Gordon Gearhart

the dried old leaves fall

never fears their end knowing

their time will return

~Joanne Macias

waterbed

of pillow lava

extra firm

~Nicholas De Marino

string theory

strung between

modules

~Nicholas De Marino

аs a child 

no one knew 

the operating principles of military aviation

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

 

Kardashev Scale

have the UFOs

just been slumming

~dan smith

 

 

And  it utters vociferously

 

'I am at war..I cannot help killing innocent people...

now I have no time to think of the butterflies...

kindergarten...future's children park without fear...' 

It utters vociferously 

and throws stones at the flowers. 

~Partha Sarkar 

 

 

bioscience systemic sticker shock

 

bioscience systemic sticker shock – 

                                            why was I quarantined for years

~Scott C. Holstad

blind

 

an eye for a mouth

garbled trace of

humanity left in

traces at table

along with knife

the size of Judas.

~Scott C. Holstad

Duality

Of twilight crickets

Slow mandolins

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

Ravens song

Time goes by

Is it enough?

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Morning of April 10, 2026

 https://poetsagainstracism-usa.org/

temple bells chime

a monkey finds

lice in its ear

~Soumya Mukherjee

turning into a scarecrow wet owl

~Tejendra Sherchan

Vanilla ice coffee

You told me to enjoy birds

Simple, sweet

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

the gentle bleed

of daily news

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Flee or Flea

I dreamt of fleas and house cleaning again

The itchy creatures were reciting poetry

Haiku, tanka, couplets, quatrains, odes, 

Sonnets to the skin, in iambic pentameter 

Not stopping in their everlasting multiplication 

The spectre of a vet looms large and threatens

The existence of the wily indestructible flea

Oh I know my time is up I just want blood me

Vampires in films get much more screen time

But the Ctenocephalides felis hogs the Front Line

~Olinda Ninolakis

Lifeboat:

my fragile suppositions

tossed overboard

~Patrick Sweeney

eight-clawed sparrows on the iodine wire

~Patrick Sweeney

it'll take more than borax to kill the eggs of these fleas

~Patrick Sweeney

yes, I walked into telephone poles and stop signs as a kid...

early indications of something or other

~Patrick Sweeney

stepping on and stretching up

a wad of parking-lot gum, again

the heat

~Patrick Sweeney

astronauts escaping Earth's atmosphere

on a broken toilet

~Patrick Sweeney

chalked palms

a climbing rope reaches

the highest rafter

~Randy Brooks

 

out loud noun

their silent modifier

such a quiet verb

~Randy Brooks

 

 

dorm room poster

hippies hold hands

into the woods

~Randy Brooks

Charlotte

tethered by friendship to the end

Wilbur

~Jennifer Gurney

one way 

universe converses with me

through dreams

~Tejendra Sherchan

Evening of April 7, 2026

one dandelion
and no breeze
a possible future

~Marie C Lecrivain

the last black rhino

is gone

a slower

sunrise

today

~Marie C Lecrivain

up there

the grimacing chimera

of the church

là-haut

la chimère grimaçante

de l’église

~Marie Derley

limescale the thought of you e r o d i n g 

~Katherine E Winnick

The Transit of

Venus — a slowed-

 

down version of

Waiting for Godot.

~Mark Young

no more waiting for Godot

~Belinda Behne

The Age of Misrule every day is April Fools

~dan smith

that butterfly, that now

~dan smith

zero gravity

the hourglass sand

stops flowing

~John J. Dunphy

AARP asked 

why I cancelled auto pay

for my late aunt’s bill

~James Penha 

Lurching from one disaster 

to another, all

of his own making.
 

~Jeffrey Taylor

my father's dog tags

peace 

is a utopia

~M. R. Pelletier 

Old women selling eggs

The quiet wisdom

In everyday life

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

Insomnia

I cannot dream

so I write poetry

~Noah Berlatsky

surgery scar . . . 

the tideline's cursive

changing alphabets

~Nicholas Klacsanzky

milestones
the fabled end

of a rainbow

~Joanna Ashwell

surveying my teashop

the swallows won't return

to build their nests

~Tejendra Sherchan 

(fr)agile moon
(b)light

on my feet

~Joshua St. Claire

daffodils

Cadbury eggs

first signs of spring

~Jennifer Gurney

Finally we came to know    

Finally we came to know that 

we are naked.

Thank you, Mr. President.

~Partha Sarkar 

under lamplight

not confessing to anything

the unmoving fly

~Albert Schlaht

trick candles
on my birthday cake

I wasn’t born yesterday

~Herb Tate