Best of the Net Nominations from Five Fleas Itchy Poetry

              

 

         What Lines?

         ~Kelly Sauvage Moyer 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                            

                                                                                     

                                                                                                                      And?

                                                                  ~dan smith

  

Congratulations to our talented itchy poets and artists: 

 

Biswajit Mishra (p)

Cynthia Anderson (p)

dan smith (a)

Jackie Chou (p) 

John J. Dunphy (p)

Kelly Sauvage Moyer (a)

Noah Berlatsky (p)

Patrick Sweeney (p)

 

Here are their poems: 

reading

the depth of insomnia

I lie

surrounded by rows

of unread books

~Biswajit Mishra

 

wind chill factor

the real feel

of ICE

~Cynthia Anderson

 

where the sky

meets the mountains

and the sea

the thin line between

friend and enemy

~Jackie Chou

 

Minneapolis street

its snow

bloodied

~John J. Dunphy

 

 

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

secretly, he believed that every dandelion wish would come true

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

A Day in the Life

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

Evening of September 25, 2026

 

helium-rich breath 

into the eyes of 

the fire beast

~Richard Magahiz

 

 

 

 

old freaking pond   

at the bottom  

there were quasars   

~Richard Magahiz

to relearn the breath,    imbibe null space     

 

~Richard Magahiz

 

 

sliding scale wearing motley 

~Jerome Berglund 

 

 

blood stained 

bingo card

~Jerome Berglund

 

 

smart people 

are going to figure it out 

and then what

~Jerome Berglund

 

Netflix now

bullies back

on the news

~Biswajit Mishra

 

 

 

pedestrian crossing

all eyes

on cellphones

~Biswajit Mishra

winding road —

gauging the blind spots

of our second marriage

~Debarati Sen

cinnamon cat, orange eyed

meowing autumn

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

 

 

Zeitgeist

 

 

Tick.

Tick.

Tock.

Now.

No.

Next.

~Leonard Zinovyev 

 

 

 

Post-Dream

 

 

hope dies

at seven a. m.

 

~Leonard Zinovyev

 

 

 

 

The Geologist's Diary

granite

remembers 

the weight 

of the sky

~Leonard Zinovyev

 

 

 

on the way back home the lightness of my backpack

~Bipasha Majumder (De)

 

 

 

 

becoming a wildflower eternity

~Tejendra Sherchan

 

 

 

climate change
a short in the wiring
of landlocked birds

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

stockpiles 

we stack our prayers

by expiration date

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

 

escalation
one last chance to bow 

to birdsong

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer  

 

 

endless war  

here and now

hear and know 

~Hifsa Ashraf 

 

 

Afternoon of September 21, 2026

 

wabi sabi

for   get   ting

which is which

~Vishal Prabhu

 

 

 

kleptocurrency

stacking the coins

by bits

~Tré

 

the boys next door

at it again

four moons

~Tré

lab tests

I identify

as a pincushion

~Tré

They will find you 2:35 p.m. scrolling.

~Souvik Sarkar

for sanity chestnut trees in sunlight a moment of peace 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

sun unfolding spiraling days back from the mess

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

afloat on quicksand

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

suffering from their suffering street cats

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

th(i)s too shall pass

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

aligning with the inclining hill half moon

~Tejendra Sherchan

what the war leaves behind shrouded moon

~Mona Bedi

 

deep grief the bed still unmade

~Mona Bedi

Sorrow's Mysteries

cannot be solved 

by Angela Lansbury

or the gun

on the table

they are only 

ended so

lean back relax

change the channel

~dan smith

Metaphors

tumble in the washing machine

of my brain and come out

all mixed up soggy and wrinkled

I try to put a different spin 

on them in the dryer that is my heart

and they do come out softer

and smoother if not new

or improved     

~dan smith

the devil

really

has plenty of

advocates

~Noah Berlatsky

the strait roars

a shuddering moon

smoked out

~Kavita Ratna

Record-breaking Nashville heat

ends two days before fall begins.

Red hot anger at

how we treat the earth.


~Jeffrey Taylor / Janelle Curlin-Taylor

unicorns, mermaids,

fairytale propaganda—

wander in the real

~Maximilien Hein

faint stretch marks

are all I have left 

of you 

~Marie C Lecrivain

I’ve

started

to remove

the paintings we hung

to showcase our relationship

but the blank spaces

were all lies

just like

us

~Marie C Lecrivain

Celebrate with smols poetry journal (September 22)

 

      

Submit your ultra-short poetry: https://smolspoetryjournal.blogspot.com/