Afternoon of April 5, 2023

Spider

There was a spider

at the bottom of the ocean,

dealing cards to players

in the casino.

~Marc Isaac Potter

clean window

fly tut-tuts

on its way out

~Kavita Ratna

school shooting

a permanent tooth forever

halfway in

~David Oates

My father’s dead

And I’m watching tv

And I’m eating cheese

My father’s dead

And I’m flossing

My father’s dead and

My father’s dead

~David Oates

newspaper photo

a dog lying in the road

eyes closed

kindly caption writer:

‘and a tired dog’

~David Oates

Death is always waiting

until she isn’t looking,

when she forgets precautions

against gruesome, grisly end.

Disaster movies can’t prepare her,

crisis rations wrapped in foil

in her bunker won’t forestall

choking on a bone.

~Nolcha Fox

Leaking Chocolate

A chocolate candy gun,

the heat of the barrel,

leaking onto the boy’s

bare hand,

Leaking onto the boys.

~Marc Isaac Potter

April fool’s day

on the cherry blossom

a layer of snow

~Françoise Maurice

the queen’s banjo

will be missed

at the hootenanny

~David Oates

sun drunk laying with the pavement snake

~Kelly Moyer

locusts downgraded from plague to misdemeanor

~Kelly Moyer