Morning of December 9, 2025

 

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

rising to the top

the yeast

of my worries

 

~Robert Witmer

the street lamp flickers

raindrops

alone with a saxophone

~Robert Witmer

rainy season

watching reruns

on the weather channel

~Robert Witmer

Santa’s address with no forwarding way home

~Joanna Ashwell

bonfire ash

the way everything

has to end


~Mona Bedi

old fort the deafening silence of past lives


~Mona Bedi

We’re all

Differently abled stars

Coffee drunk

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

mosh pits

after the concert

night crickets

~Anthony Lusardi

a doomsday fish

washes ashore

third time this year

~Kimberly Kuchar

Kiwi Fruit

It's actually pretty tasty

if you can stop seeing it

as furry little critters

without legs.

~Gloria Parker

wild grass

blooming on the roadside

without a name


~Tejendra Sherchan

A.I. doesn't know what I'm missing

~Patrick Sweeney

family photo...

involuntarily counting

our smiling dead

~Patrick Sweeney

Five Fleas’ Nominations for the 2025 Red Moon Anthology

Congratulations to these 12 talented poets!

nature

without politics

backyard garden


~Jerome Berglund

Vox Populi

once a whisper

now a scream

~dan smith

drizzle, rain, drizzle…

chill in my bones –

uncertain diagnosis

~Maya Daneva

ten milligrams away from melancholy this new life

~Ruth Holzer

Rock Creek

swimming with grandkids

and ecoli


~Kimberly Kuchar

telling the cactus you’ll have water in about two weeks

~Sharon Ferrante

tail raised on mudstone

a dragonfly's

prehistoric longing

~Patrick Sweeney

coral caves

the weave of a tail

mermaiding

~Joanna Ashwell

what’s the trick

for staying grounded here?

well, gravity

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

moving day—

the rice cooker

leaves for college

~Julie Bloss Kelsey

fallen branches scars of a previous lifetime

~Patricia Hawkhead

 

doubt

maybe a hesitation

in the knees

~M. R. Pelletier

 

 

More of Our 2025 Award Nominations

Pushcart Prize Nominations

Touchstone Award Nominations

Morning of December 5, 2025

 

Easy to vote

 

Voting ends December 7!

https://www.chillsubs.com/best-lit-mag-awards

Hoodie Portrait

The old homeless man

pulls his hoodie up,

his head framed

in an oval portrait.

Diane Webster

zen practice

i watch

paint dry

John J. Dunphy

my one trick yoyo

up and down

up and down

Randy Brooks

college stage

Chekov never was

so funny

Randy Brooks

midday sun

trickling downstream

snowmelt

Gareth Nurden

family home visit

mildew on the attic wall

fading a lullaby


Hifsa Ashraf

 

 

child custody talk

in the backyard

budding mushrooms

Hifsa Ashraf

Our uncivilized hurriedness

 
'Excuse me... would you..'

'Just shut up'.

Partha Sarkar

Whispers

A long postcard from an ancient postman

And no door is open...

Are there whispers in the chilled stillness?

Partha Sarkar

on the sidewalk

an abir-smeared rock

worshiped as God

Tejendra Sherchan

morning devotees

line up at the temple gate

amid drifting smoke

a flower girl hesitates

basket resting by her side

Jagajit Salam

everything

depends on how

the footsteps echo

Sarah Mahina Calvello

shift of perspective

twilight’s camera

loses focus

Sarah Mahina Calvello

Picnic Table Snow

Snow cover tracked up

by wandering humans

around the picnic table

swept clean once.

Now abandoned

and exposed.

Diane Webster

Leaves Reach

October leaves cover

boardwalk boards

as if to reach back

into history when each

was a part of the tree.

 

A widow lies

on the gravestone

of her dead husband —

separate as October leaves.

Diane Webster

decomposing

in the compost pile

last week's politics


Joseph P. Wechselberger

dog scientists

worked hard to recreate Man

all night they howled

David C. Kopaska-Merkel

I find

the rest of you

in our usual spot

David C. Kopaska-Merkel

family gathering

several versions

of potato salad


Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

eating hors d'oeuvres

with toothpicks

Christmas party


Joseph P. Wechselberger

strip club

its Christmas tree

bare

John J. Dunphy

 

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