Nominations Submitted for the 2023 Touchstone Awards

Finally we can announce the 2023 Touchstone Award nominees from Five Fleas Itchy Poetry

(listed in chronological order of when the poems were published):

mistletoad

~Susan Burch

d)us(t

~Rowan Beckett

wow's as good a prayer as any

~Patrick Sweeney

the sky is falling . . .

we all just stand there

watching

~Kimberly Kuchar

I’ve read and studied

but still I cannot fathom

how a zipper works

~James Penha

the comedy or tragedy question is getting harder to answer

~Patrick Sweeney

exasperating AI   I request an agent who has seen into her original self

~Patrick Sweeney

like weird barbie

i break

into my better self

~Kelly Moyer

public library

now banned from observing

Banned Books Week

~John J. Dunphy

selfies

accidental pictures

of my feet

~Linda L Ludwig

uncaged i peck at the empty shell of my youth

~Kelly Moyer

hitchhiker

his thumb pointed at

the night sky

~John J. Dunphy

roadside attractions

much ado about nothing

~JL Huffman

after dinner

discarding

her husband

~Wilda Morris

Mona Lisa —

the smile i saved

for him

~Mona Bedi

spam.link_that.fatal.click

~Wanda Amos

pixie dust the secret life of a wallflower

~Kelly Moyer

summer night

the motel ice machine

hums to itself

~John Pappas

first light hunched over the dream dictionary

~John Pappas

the dangle

of her privilege

coffeeshop earrings

~Kelly Moyer

the itch to just

hit send and regret it

submission jitters

~A.J. Anwar

stagnant pond

the stench

of a dead haiku

~Kimberly Kuchar

pelvic exam the curtain rises on a cabaret

~Kelly Moyer

Past midnight

too late to write

a good poem.

~Noah Berlatsky

I (nuclear) solemnly (Armageddon) swear

~Lee Hudspeth

t  h  e     s  p  a  c  e     b  e  t  w  e  e  n     c  h  a  i  n  -  l  i  n  k  s

~Jerome Berglund

hencluck laidegg

~J. D. Nelson

I woke up twice on the same page

~Patrick Sweeney

unlearning the patriarchy no such thing as forbidden fruit

~Kerry J Heckman

primal rain

ants break rank

and dance

~Ron Scully

Congratulations to the poets!