Afternoon of July 21, 2026

  

Blueprints

I fed sparrows.

They returned

with architectural drawings.

~Travis Park

Museum of Air

Please do not touch

the empty spaces.

Some are original.

~Travis Park

Weather Returned

The umbrella

came home

with the wrong rain.

~Travis Park

Way Out

The exit

has been framed

as another exhibit.

~Travis Park

a colossus cat pushes everything

                                                         over

                                                          the

                                                         edge

                                                           flat

                                                          earth

~Kimberly Kuchar

You have no deaths 

Earnest dawn...yet you have no chirpings of your own.

productive midday...yet you have no sweat of your own. 

A gloomy lighthouse 

and no janitor to guide you. 

A suffocation 

and you choose the wrong route for the long march.  

Your own deaths float around you.

~Partha Sarkar

these days

instead of a concert or a club

we dance on

the paper-littered floor

by the recliners

~David Oates

August funeral

only the deceased wears

a coat and tie

~John J. Dunphy

unseasonal rain 

returning clouds fill

with malevolence

~John Hawkhead 

 

sweeping teashop 

more ants

than dust

~Tejendra Sherchan 

Refreshingly Unconcerned with the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity

Fake news, fake tans, fake blues, fake views. 

Surrounded by a lack of Vulgar Veracity

Like a spaceship flies in an Iain M. Banks novel

Heads for the unknown without even a parachute 

Victors are losers, losers are winners, in the war

Sound bites and troglodyte hype from Tangerine Blob

News channels prevaricate as markets rise and fall 

Hormuz strait a concertina of woes a Mecca

As leaders blame each other remaining forever

Refreshingly Unconcerned with the Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity

~Olinda Ninolakis

Beyond Tacitus and Orwell 

they make deserts

and don't even bother 

to call it peace

~dan smith

street eatery

the stray obeys anything

a man asks him

~Tejendra Sherchan

The Dream of an Idiot 

A ruined epitome. 

That blast-less mind of simple mathematics to heal the wound of

someone’s sadness, 

to manipulate the twisted epithets and be the walk that someone walks, 

and be the words that someone speaks, breathing their breath and being

the tenderest moment when someone cries. 

~John Vlachos

singing bowls  there is great comedic potential here first date 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

convicted pervert the course of justice

~John Hawkhead

Morning of July 18, 2026

 

  

   

Five Fleas swag: https://www.zazzle.com/store/five_fleas

 

 

 

An idea, a joke

a suggestion

and wordplay all

walk into a bar.

I buy them a round,

then invite them

into my poem.

~Keith Snow

shadow of a soul

marks on a canvas

ghosts that ask forgiveness

longing for redemption

yearning for the light

~dan smith

sweaty brow—

only a large fan

at the laundromat

~Patricia Carragon

midsummer birds cling to the air the space between us 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

 

his way of looking always askance

~dan smith

light comes down soft in the moment it happens morning coffee 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

Purity

 

I do not read poetry.

 

I do not want it to affect

 

my voice.

~Noah Berlatsky

 

After Jean Valentine

 

footprints

slowly

fill with snow

 

write a different poem

slowly

not about snow

~Noah Berlatsky

 

Death of a Hummingbird 

 A dot, a miniature cyclone. 

The heart is breathless like the most beautiful diamond that could ever be

made to resist death. 

And the beauty, the crystalline analysis, the perfection of form, the

balanced line, the irresistible temper of a creature living at such speeds it

flies itself out of this world.

~John Vlachos

 

frequency hopping 

accept able      

employ able 

suit able

~Jerome Berglund

 

summer heat 

even the dirty stream

is tempting

~tom blessing

 

road trip

my son sings both parts 

of the song

~Jennifer Gurney

 

all I hear

in the heat of the moment

ice in my glass

~Jennifer Gurney

 

low tide leaves gifts

a castle in the driftwood

a mermaid in the kelp

~Jennifer Gurney

 

Somehow 

Somehow an incomplete sentence draws the conclusion. 
 

~ Partha Sarkar

 

 

Open August 1 -15: Post-Ku (Verses on postcards)

https://post-ku.com/submit/

 

 

 

Evening of July 15, 2026

 

monsoon rain

a sparrow on a powerline

owns all of it

~Tejendra Sherchan

late sunflower ~

i remember the ocean

before the frost

~katharine love

Star of Peace 

Star of Peace! 

Let the midnight come. 

~ Partha Sarkar

Breaking bread getting to the bottom of things 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello  

I shouldn't have told my neighbor

about the power I'm gaining from his silver maple tree

~Patrick Sweeney

his plan for today is to go to the edge of the forest

and sit for another chickweed tutorial

~Patrick Sweeney

old forest tangled within walls wild birdsong 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

midnight ballerina her tassels

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Longing upon the page my story unwritten

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

When the Origami Smokes 

The moving of some intention to dry the ocean in your mouth so you can

speak and say,  

Plantagenets are sewn into the earth to make bread where peasants

loosen their tongues and call it an inside out apostrophe, 

The laundry turns into doves and flies away as the laminated child breaks

apart like porcelain to my map of many planets. 

~John Vlachos

she blinks . . .

some of the pain

slips out

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

THE OPEN PLAN SYMPHONY

Eighty people are typing in unison

Everyone wears noise-canceling earphones

We send emojis to our neighbors  

Nobody looks at the actual window 

The sky outside is purely cosmetic 

We breathe the recycled air deeply

I am lonely in three dimensions 

~Leonard Zinovyev

UPGRADE

I uploaded my mind to the cloud today,

But the "Terms and Conditions" forgot my face;

Now I wander the grid, like a viral ghost,

Reblogging the silence of empty space.

~Leonard Zinovyev

Civil War battlefield

fresh hostilities break out between

partisan tourists

~John J. Dunphy

my fingers weave 

through her silver hair 

i search for lice 

~Bernadette O'Reilly 

COMMUTER'S  LAMENT

We sit on the train, polite and discreet,

Eating Wi-Fi signals for our morning meal.

A stranger beside me just sprouted an eye,

And we both double-tap to see if it's real.

~Leonard Zinovyev

THE ALGORITHM KNOWS ME

The Internet suggests a new jacket. 

It matches my deep

existential dread.

The color is called "Corporate Void".

I bought it with one click.

The delivery drone arrived 

before I ordered.

It dropped the box on my head.

It whispered

that it loves me.

~Leonard Zinovyev

WIRELESS

The router blinked twice.

An uninvited ghost logged

into the Wi-Fi.

It changed the password

to "boo".

~Leonard Zinovyev

Simple good life 

Soup noodles 

Leave me wanting 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

a love match—

the IBAN code on the invitation card

in lowercase

~Nicoletta Ignatti

Where to submit in August:

Kingfisher Journal

https://kingfisherjournal.com/submissions/

tinywords

https://tinywords.com/about/

Wales Haiku Journal

https://www.waleshaikujournal.com/submit