Morning of June 30, 2023

Fireworks

Did the founders

truly want

to frighten my dog?

~Noah Berlatsky

the immensities of a boy's lonely summer

~Patrick Sweeney

my best Fred Astaire for the long-life of a carpenter ant

~Patrick Sweeney

the scholars are arguing about Woodrow Wilson   I stayed out of it

~Patrick Sweeney

kindness of neighbors sharing our wildfires

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

all in favor

of plutocracy

the I’s have it

~Jerome Berglund

red ants

throwing bodies

at the menace 

~Jerome Berglund

false spring 

how they portray

Pugachev

~Jerome Berglund

magma—

the silent spew

of all

         hurts

~A.J. Anwar

Afterlife

I am dead

but not buried.

 

Going through

the motions

 

somewhere.

~Dan Provost

thickest makeup to show more clowns

~A.J. Anwar

a gulp of cold barley tea    there goes another cool customer

~Patrick Sweeney

enduring alone the Circus Maximus of the Nightly News

~Patrick Sweeney