Morning of October 31, 2022

sushi bar

the chef’s signature

eye roll

~Kelly Moyer

 

Halloween party

fake blood

real blood

~Mark Gilbert

Eerily silent streets,

Devoid of enthusiasm;

And the chatters it once held.

Won the combat of slaughter,

Lost the battle of life.

~ Shreyasi Sen

dawn

costumed shadows

move on

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

      monster promises happy ending

and it shall be

      for the monster

~Jerome Berglund

a smear of fake blood

the slit

in the cougar's eye

~Mark Gilbert

Eight long legs creeping

over my sleeping body.

Late night, sudden bite.

~Michele Rule

petrichor

the unmistakable stench

of worms

~Kelly Moyer

Morning of October 30, 2022

elegant updo

the crumb

of her biscuit

~Kelly Moyer

two

three four five

sex

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

red wax lips

the better to kiss

you with my dear

~Eavonka Ettinger

autumn leaves

the poet's

low-hanging fruit


~Kelly Moyer

sudden death

how to handle her

vibrator

~John Hawkhead

dipping fingers

in hot candle wax

paraffin tips

~Eavonka Ettinger

Evening of October 28, 2022

frost on the ground

Mars looking down

an ambulance idling

the only sound


~Mark Gilbert

To Where It's Made

criss     

                                   cross 

applesauce

              look at these

                 dirty knees

milk                                     milk

               lemonade

permission slip

                               field trip

to the fudge factory
 

~petro c.k.

behind curtain 1 or 2

escape hatch

to another world 

 

~Eavonka Ettinger

never so long

give me

some mates

at the game

give me a beer

& some banter

give me yesterday

because

i can’t wait for tomorrow

~Geoffrey Aitken

inner child

travels to the future

begs to return

~Eavonka Ettinger

Caging vs Birding

                I am a cage, in search of a bird. — Kafka

Wherever my mind               flies,   it   is   still

                                                                                  Confined

Tightly to this world,   this   very   cage   of

Sensory & imaginative               c e l l s

In other words,             I   is   the   cage,   while

       The whole universe                am   a   bird

~Yuan Changming

hiding in the ballot box nuns


~Roberta Beach Jacobson

wildflowers

the prairie nymph’s

crooked toe

~Kelly Moyer

morning thaw

finally

she knows

~John Hawkhead

Afternoon of October 28, 2022

the mad hatter sings on the corner to no one

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

fancy kibble courting the mews

 ~Kelly Moyer

 

morning meeting my boss takes a call from his dandelion clock

~Joshua St. Claire

 

wingbeats of startled birds a child’s dream

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

free association fees

~Kelly Moyer

 

Freudian pink slips

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

impressions of the mime still in the air red balloons

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

you following the Latin nihilum nihil nil

~Joshua St. Claire

 

flying up the down escalator sparrow

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

the dew's going to do what it do

~Eavonka Ettinger

 

apple juice overflowing the cups of her brassiere

~Kelly Moyer

 

hitting high notes salpinx of bone

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

nimbostratus cranial suture

~Joshua St. Claire

 

open mic on the dark side of mars static

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

apparently

tenting our home won't

make it a circus

~Eavonka Ettinger

migraine

owning someone

else's teeth

~Mark Gilbert

Afternoon of October 26, 2022

late harvest

plucking resentments

straight from the vine

~Kelly Moyer

dusk shadows —

the lingering taste

of disappointments

~Amoolya Kamalnath

Ode to a Comet

No fixed star in heaven glows so bright.

Ice and dust, dirty snowball tracing elliptical

paths. Slow moving herald of doom or

delight, cloud tails flaring. Hard, crispy outside

and cold, soft inside, like fried iced cream.

Unpredictable as attraction. You hairy star,

you fiery space beast causing meteor showers,

causing trouble, leaving trails of

galactic debris. Strange, lovely sight.

~Beth Sherman

Sputter

The onshore breeze picked up the ash

& carried it to the mountains.

This new normal

will be the death of us who bleed & consume.

No big thing

children forget how to be silly

we forget the rest.

~Les Wicks

lingering thoughts —

between hair follicles

lice and nits

~Amoolya Kamalnath

early morning

sees a sleepy yawn

and whoosh

walking in

through an open mouth

an itchy mosquito

~Rupa Anand

Freddy Flea

Freddy Flea flounced on fresh fruit

landing face forward on a fork

Somehow he learned to fly away

and the frightened fruit was saved

~Madeleine Vinluan

bad poetry

i return as

a cave fish

~Terri L. French

semantics

taking her tisket

to task

~Kelly Moyer

a violin

made of polystyrene,

a flute

made of sugar.

~Richard Magahiz

the lamplight

serenades

a covey of moths

within its corona

~Rupa Anand

total eclipse of the moths

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

core values wrapped in rot

~Terri L. French

morning after . . .

the last

of the pork rinds

~Kelly Moyer

After the Storm

The Ferris wheel landed in the ocean like a toy hurled by an angry

god. Now carp glide through the spokes, its cars rocking blindly.

Gawkers still peer at the ruins of mangled houses: splintered

frames, a toilet on its side, someone’s sagging bed frame. Where the bay

ravished the ocean, a carpet of sand. You think I’m exaggerating? Look at

the pictures. I made a scrapbook: Before and after. What doesn’t kill you etcetera 

. . .

When the next hurricane comes, I’ll name it after you. No sea wall will be high

enough to withstand the waves. Try re-building the boardwalk with fake wood.

Try mending my heart with duct tape. At night, wild dune grass rustles and

the moon kisses the highest chair on our wheel.

~Beth Sherman

recognizing that the feet we're given are wrong for the task

~Richard Magahiz

Afternoon of October 22, 2022

Wherefore Art Thou, Earth?

What is the temperature

of Mercury? What cars do they drive

On Mars? Are they stupider

On Jupiter? More taciturn

Where Saturn turns? More in tune

In the heart of June

With the fourteen moons

Of Neptune? And is Pluto no more

than a dark Venus

in Uranus?


~Robert Witmer

space sickness

my vomit comes over

to say hello


~Mark Gilbert

cascading our way

a swarm of deadheaded

satellites

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Oh Human Hubris.

You’ve changed the clocks

not the world’s wobble

or rotation,

still you claim this

is daylight saving.

~Allen Ashley

What Rites?


Can the leopard change its spots,

star-lust actors leave lime lights,

flea trails cease, wheals, red like pox,

itches cause less scratchy sites?

Potshots, finger-thumb round blots,

fumble digits so large for mites,

lots of dots evade broad swats -

night clots worse, when frights wait bites.

~Stephen Kingsnorth

Hair Dryer

My ex-girlfriend

never returned

the Conair 1600

hair dryer

she borrowed

the day she

broke up with me.

~Michael Haller

a note on Stupid

you

you

YOU

you

you

thing

you

~Caroline Reid

her red toenails . . .

the polish dries

on his Lamborghini

~Robert Witmer

Bad News

Death is unpleasant,

like the evening news.

Tonight’s top

story: “You’re dead.

Details later.”

~Michael Haller

doomsday

the world ends

with a preposition

~Kelly Moyer