Afternoon of November 17, 2023

 

  discussing society’s expectations Pringle’s can

~Joshua St. Claire

thoughts of you wake so much earlier than I do

~Sharon Ferrante

in the morning not knowing who you are

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

daydream—

I tap the shoulder

of who I become

~Sharon Ferrante

this river

won’t see me

too many leaves

floating

over my reflection

~Sharon Ferrante

from one emptiness

to another—

falling star

~John Pappas

ignoring

the police tape

ladybugs

~John Pappas

waiting room

we silently watch

reruns of cheers

~John Pappas

first dream

I fill a winter page

with crows

~John Pappas

dwindling light

I swallow the lies

 told by mother

~Rowan Beckett

now with a new and improved formula

                              mock orange

~Joshua St. Claire

the careful curation

of his only bookshelf

Zoom meeting

~Joshua St. Claire

dead mall

a killdeer leads me away

from broken asphalt

~Joshua St. Claire

when the word

is silence

we dare not

repeat

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

zen

of paper moons

hole puncher

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

flea market

a vintage six-string

with only four

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

crumpled white papers yet the canary in the cage still sings

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

2 a.m. reading a neighborhood dog sleepless too

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

pandas on a plane bamboo diplomacy

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

fireflies in a jar burying my never-child

~Rowan Beckett

wish splitting a bone enters between the fates

~Rowan Beckett

d)us(t

~Rowan Beckett

treading water the deep end of august

~John Pappas

anxiety filling the sky with swallows everything

~John Pappas