Morning of April 25, 2026

Don't Stare!

uninvited guests 

   not apologizing 

      for the mess

         I’ve become

~Bryan Rickert

her hospital voice

a crumpled piece of paper

made smooth

~Bryan Rickert

Fathomless foam  

Fathomless foam- 

One has to cross sea after sea after being drowned. 

~Partha Sarkar

Insight

The beginning of the beginning

of the beginning of the beginning

of the beginning of the beginning

of the beginning of the beginning

of the beginning of the beginning...

~Chad Parenteau

Still in love

Sweet bitterness of blackbirds

Legacy of hope

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Something magic 

Layers upon layers

Of sunset 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

weird girl 

i have always been

a weird girl,

they use it as an insult;

but i don't cling to

prayers of normalcy

i get to walk where i want—

maybe i'm not the one

who should change.

~linda m. crate 

i walk the astral realm

just let my dreams

be reality,

there's something broken

in this world;

and i'm ready to go home.

~linda m. crate

remembering magic & dreams

i promised myself

long ago i wouldn't lose

my magic or my dreams,

saw too many slip into

the skin of nothingness

and forget their own 

name.

~linda m. crate

every crow answered 

you tried too hard

to hold me,

instead i ran into 

the forest;

every crow answered

my prayers when i 

begged for friendship you

could not give me.

~linda m. crate 

through greasy air

AI wardens in

grumblecraft

~Richard Magahiz

like a holy flame writhed the king's fool 

~Richard Magahiz

by her iridium content

will you know

grief

~Richard Magahiz

trust the land snails with their dreams of speed

~Richard Magahiz

sunrise

my star parts

disappear

~Anne Fox

LOOK UP I yell

into the back of your phone case

~Jeanie Ngo

my mother faces

away from the window

trust

even after the war

~Jeanie Ngo

there is no pattern

to which of your string lights

are broken

~Jeanie Ngo

scientists are disappearing

that is not in the curriculum

I reach for a banned book

~Jeanie Ngo

400mg of empathy

enough to be present

and not enough to be paralyzed

~Jeanie Ngo

Afternoon of April 23, 2026

 

rain in the gutters

how a meaningless tune

became our anthem

~John Hawkhead

 

invasive species 

alien bodies trapped

by ice

~John Hawkhead

On Helping Two Old Men Navigate the Intake Machines at the Blood Work Place and Telling

the Phlebotomist about Philip K. Dick and the Movie Strange Days

scanners

what's next

thoughts

~dan smith

time zones

I run behind

yesterday

~Soumya Mukherjee

an ancient form

poets jump into the pond

frogs splash out

~Olinda Ninolakis

full moon 

a tulip thief makes a shortcut

through my backyard

~Maya Daneva

looking ill

on the outside—

old hospital

~Tony Williams

This year

New life

Death

Disappointment— Disillusionment

No footing

Shifting sands

All shall not be well

It only is.

~Ashley Lockemer

who's who?

the many double-Facebook people

behind the screen

~Oscar Luparia

crime scene piles of dismembered poems

~dan smith

                                              AN ENIGMA OF THE INFORMATION AGE

Record everything

then change and act as if you

always were this way.

~Paul Edward Costa

BEDTIME RITUAL REVIVAL

A taste of toothpaste, my pyjama fabric’s smell…unfamiliar sensations precede sleep.

So many nights blacked out in a row, redacted, never turning out the lights.

Anonymous heads nod in acknowledgement; they’ve also rediscovered wakeful evenings.

~Paul Edward Costa

SCHRÖDINGER WAITS DREAMING: POST-SCRIPT

I finally summoned the exorcist within me

who liberated my cardiovascular system’s

suspended centre

by standing against silence’s terror,

while repeatedly stating

The absence of deception compels you!

The absence of deception compels you!

~Paul Edward Costa

BLACK HOLE MOTOR

Do not lose faith that we will, one day,

learn how to harness the awesomely inert energy

of black holes light years away

to power our progress and functionality

since, after all, we have plenty of people operating in

and assisting society regularly

with massive, gaping chasms of silence

deep inside them. 

~Paul Edward Costa

Migraine

darkness flashes first

before it hurts

~Noah Berlatsky

you think you’re better than me lake superior

~thomas david

rubbing me 

the wrong way

tectonic plates

~thomas david

Morning of April 18, 2026

 Somewhere

$300 per night

we gather up

the toiletries

~Tom Bierovic

barking back

at the neighbor’s dog

lost in translation

~Tom Bierovic

Charlie Parker

the newborn

wiggles his toes

~Tom Bierovic

in Nashville...

the long eyelashes of my dead brother

and Johnny Cash

~Patrick Sweeney

the man with dirty fingernails giving us directions worth following

~Patrick Sweeney

the strange smells of other people's homes

~Patrick Sweeney

I'm the historian of what doesn't matter

~Patrick Sweeney

the inner clothesline is for the underwear

~Patrick Sweeney

apex predators whooping it up on the evening news

~Patrick Sweeney

Time

I'm running out of

~Noah Berlatsky

Breaktime

The world pauses.

The fingers break.

Built on precision.

Tested by time.

~T. Morrow

NASA planning

to do permanent settlement

in the moon...

since I don't own a house here

I wish to do one there

~Tejendra Sherchan

piercing the air 

a violin screams 

with grief

~Stephanie Zepherelli 

falling into 

morning coffee 

last night’s regrets

~Stephanie Zepherelli 

in prison

the invisible bars 

of expectation 

~Stephanie Zepherelli

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