Afternoon of June 23, 2026

Before the Art
 

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

 

The Devil

Nipping

at my heels

as I race

up the stairs . . .

He stops

at the single

upside-down

baluster

~Kimberly Kuchar

moth

fights to escape a cobweb

earthquake

~Tejendra Sherchan 

Rag doll in the attic

staring into space.

Tornado

~Jeffrey L. Taylor

Under one umbrella

both of us

get half wet.

~Jeffrey L. Taylor

The Critic

Pay me and I will evaluate

the art you love. It isn’t great.

~Noah Berlatsky

for one day

we saw and remembered

presidential

~Jennifer Gurney

words are spells 

even mermaids

drown,

words are spells;

you are meant to 

create not destroy:

both worlds and

people.

~linda m. crate 

French onion soup

the long stretch

of a rendezvous

~Randy Brooks

In The Cosmic Nursery

time stretches

voids yawn

it's a gas, man

~dan smith

house

with barbed wire fence

a dead tree inside 

~Tejendra Sherchan

after the second beyond  a wait

~Vijay Prasad

stagnant pool all the reasons why we parted

~Neena Singh

 

 

Five Fleas Swag

https://www.zazzle.com/store/five_fleas

Afternoon of June 18, 2026

 

 

common assault and battery life 

~John Hawkhead

 

 

 

memorandum of understanding nothing 

~John Hawkhead

M

You sleep around my sleep

because you dream of me

while I dream of you or

because the other way around or

because you went to sleep first

and woke up later.

~Noah Berlatsky

old graveyard 

something sprouts  

beneath the oaks 

~Deborah Karl-Brandt

sea waves

lap the rocky cliffs

and rebound...

my heart finds its way

to AI love

~Tejendra Sherchan

she told me she saw

faces in the rock, but

she didn’t know if

they saw her

~Tom Blessing

strangled my voice out back

at last it’s not me

talking

~Noah Berlatsky

Secretive 

Ready stretch the tally of the years, ready beckon and tantalize, ready buy with an open 

heart, a box to conceal, make or break the truth on the table when your nerves are shot 

and moments are walking with crutches.

~John Vlachos

Anxiety of Influence

 

Pound was a fascist ass;

Shelley a philandering jerk.

Yeats was a weird misogynist.

Ted Hughes was even worse.

 

Poe was racist. Stevens too.

Great poets white, male and dead—

away with them! I will live

and write doggerel instead.

~Noah Berlatsky

feeling invisible

every piece of mail in my box

not for me

~Jennifer Gurney

off grid

a snail goes

it's own way

~Melissa Dennison

the seeker of the origins of the Universe,

finished third on Jeopardy

~Patrick Sweeney

because they let him take long lunches

he never calls in sick at the drone factory

~Patrick Sweeney

studying the dorsal wing of a fly

he said: 'you always knew how to have fun'

~Patrick Sweeney

In  a  Zen Garden

The gnomes 

all seem to dance.

I become a prayer.

The world a chalice.

The wounded sky

grows faint and Earth

but shadow of a scar.

~dan smith

cherry blossom

fooling

nobody


~Stephen Toft

 

garden buddha

has moss

for hair

~Stephen Toft

Tiredness 

Tiredness has no last chapter. 

~Partha Sarkar

 

Afternoon of June 14, 2026

 

 

Kitchen Wink

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

homeless shelter

a round of applause for

the class valedictorian 

~John J. Dunphy 

 

from unhoused

to housed

in an ICE detention center

~John J. Dunphy

 

Lenin

if you put him in 

a cowboy hat 

~Jerome Berglund

local law enforcement 

investigating 

themselves 

~Jerome Berglund

 

meddlesome 

good representation 

despite,

never ever 

because of

~Jerome Berglund

They say 

only the meek

surrender;

but, have you

ever heard

the roar

of a waterfall?

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

in lieu of ellipses and em-dashes a squiggly line 

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

dew-warped 

the three-liner

left out overnight

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

white worm . . . 

well damn me 

for an amateur 

been too focused 

on secular conspiring

~Jerome Berglund

changing the system 

or endorsing it 

appendicitis 

~Jerome Berglund

thoughts and prayers

they would have us 

second guess them

~Jerome Berglund

 

under the nails —

a line

that won’t print


~Jacek Margolak

 

broken press —

a fingerprint

in the margin


~Jacek Margolak

 

 

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