Afternoon of August 26, 2026

  

error 404 —

the bird’s nest

in the satellite dish

~Jacek Margolak

zoom call —

my cat’s tail

presenting

~Jacek Margolak

delivery notice —

the box

already empty

~Jacek Margolak

don't make me the punchline,

i'm not here to be your joke.

~linda m. crate 

i'm a moonflower

but the world only

remembers sunflowers.

~linda m. crate

don't miss me now

my ghost is meant

to haunt you.

~linda m. crate

 

waiting for sweetness candlelight reverberates mirrored surfaces

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

war plans another generation at risk

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

A moment is all we are flickering candle 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

 

decoys,

in shoes that don't fit

~Patrick Sweeney

once he thought he could figure out the whole shebang

and secretly, he still thought he might...

~Patrick Sweeney

A sky of dizzy stars everything colliding 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

he decided to spare them the martyrdom of his company

~Patrick Sweeney

still smoldering nests

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

the speech after the speech after another shooting

~Patrick Sweeney

all the world's 

a stage

recess

~Jennifer Gurney

to be

or not to be

hospice

~Jennifer Gurney

Afternoon of August 14, 2026

 

 

 

 

bare bodkin fair point

~Jerome Berglund

don't 

wanna know 

but need to 

~Jerome Berglund

 

in a fair and 

comely shape

peacock tarantula 

~Jerome Berglund

 

solar eclipse dark shadows on my wall 

~Bernadette O'Reilly 

mathematics

one way the universe

converses with me

~Tejendra Sherchan

got no time 

to learn about wolves in the forest 

picking us off

~Jerome Berglund

universal monsters

nothing more dangerous 

than the likable ones 

~Jerome Berglund

each car honk

a vote of support

for our signs

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

elegant is the dance of want,

sliced air, 

cupped hand with a steel bowl - 

the beggar tosses his coins 

pity leaps up, twirls, dives back to his bowl 

the dance of the overstretched hand synced 

with the music of hunger 

from belly to bowl

~Allen David Simon

sunflowers

as far as the eye can see

war dead

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

you and i…

could be an unknown face

but in same equation 

~Kamrun Nahar

 

 

vagabond phantoms the best at being unseen in moonlight 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

gnat not just one

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

turning the page don’t skip the messy chapters

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

Afternoon of August 11, 2026

 

Wind Chimes

~Michael Lee Johnson 

The wind chimes,

silver-tongued

on the balcony today,

different sounds—

cool, metallic laughter—

in all different directions.

My thoughts chase

after them

~Michael Lee Johnson

graveside service

blowing across the cemetery

a dropped tissue

~John J. Dunphy

swallowing fear a biscuit afraid for the throat

~Peter Jastermsky

 

this could be anything what she meant by unfocused

~Peter Jastermsky

Cat Story Problem

Shave the cat.

From the fur make another cat.

The cat eats the fur.

The cat coughs it up.

The cat eats the hairball.

How many cats do you have?

One cat around all the cats.

You have to shave it to find out.

~Noah Berlatsky

X-Files

the need to believe

in humanity

~Joanna Ashwell

three wishes

from the Genie

rain becoming prayer

~Joanna Ashwell

 

forgetting my own name

no box check

for an eclipse

~Joanna Ashwell

I couldn't stop being me, so I left the room, the town, and the country

~Patrick Sweeney

we're the family that talks all at once

about six different things

in three languages

~Patrick Sweeney

high above my supervisor's imperatives, 

I'm racing a gray squirrel across the power line

~Patrick Sweeney

my dentist Theseus

got lost in the labyrinth

of my mouth, with

out a thread of dental floss

to guide him home

~Oliver Kleyer

made up 

of the star-stuff 

cosmos within me 

~Tejendra Sherchan

Bridging the gap

 

feeling the winds sway

as I hold on by a thread

there is no reprieve -

how long can I bridge the gap 

before it all falls apart

~Joanne Macias  

funeral rites

we wonder why the fisherman

never throws them back

~John Hawkhead

 

squirming maggots

the dictator’s soul goes

its separate ways

 

~John Hawkhead

release of UFO files

drone light shows

before they existed


~Douglas J. Lanzo

calm down a little we’re all in a rush pouring more coffee

~Sarah Mahina Calvello  

rose-colored reality in the rose garden 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

clock ticking shape of kimono tea under the moon 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

ice-cream vendor

his name

a tax haven

marchand de glaces

son nom

un paradis fiscal

~Marie Derley

 

before it falls—

a beaver hears

the tree

~Kimberly Kuchar

I got nothin…

a mason jar empty 

of fireflies 

~Sharon Ferrante

Revolution

Is a revolution in the end a good mother? 

~Partha Sarkar

banyan roots —

a tale that started

eons ago

~Mona Bedi

sea washed rocks what life makes of us


~Mona Bedi

window seat I enter the clouds 


~Mona Bedi

 

old age the length of an empty day

~Mona Bedi