Afternoon of February 27, 2024

my continuous personal consciousness goes right on peeling potatoes

~Patrick Sweeney

I wish I was a butterfly

I'll grow wings when I die.

I wish that I was a phoenix

I'll rise again from cinder and ashes.

I wish I will live forever

forever young and forever fair.

but wishing stars fade, die

wishing stars fade and die.

~Fhen M.

in the frozen ground

a new grave waiting

to be fed

~Tom Blessing

pigeons

flying roof to roof

must be bored

~Tom Blessing

red banarasi

like sunshine

her acid-burnt face

~Debarati Sen



 

hail oh mountain wolves / do howl to your hearts' content / to tell us what is

~Charles A. Perrone

The twelve apostles rise

from the dead. Their job?

Drag bodies from Gaza

over the wall into Egypt.

When will the killing end,

they ask a wandering hippie ghost

singing about sunshine.

The sky turns black.

A cross appears,

holding a weeping man.

~Pris Campbell

isolating the war drums in his speech

~Patrick Sweeney

the people who didn't get there in time

~Patrick Sweeney

a pebble

in my niece's forehead

war hero

~Shasta Hatter

four crows stand

in the street

unmoved by cars

~Shasta Hatter

heavy with secrets

oh, how I long

to keep them

~Shasta Hatter

5G

the good doctor's

burner phone

~Kelly Moyer

twist of fate

a typo

in the tea leaves

~Kelly Moyer

he listened to both sides and served tea

~Patrick Sweeney

she was a smoker who every now and then wore a halo

~Patrick Sweeney

Morning of February 26, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

two shoes minus one poltergeist

~Lafcadio

π 

8 

1 

4 

2 

15 

@

~Lafcadio

around and around

pictures on a spinning top

of extinct species

~John Hawkhead

sudden nightfall

pulling tarpaulin

over a face

~John Hawkhead

others are shackled to walls or masts

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

chasing people down / yelling / "you ate my brother!"

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

If I referenced a classical myth or a jazz musician

you would have to love me, my Pulitzer judge of the heart.

~Noah Berlatsky

lost wallet

retracing my steps

i find myself

~Stephanie Zepherelli

war orphan

finding a teddy bear

with one eye

~Stephanie Zepherelli

the actress

eyelids all aflutter

a moth in a jar

~Mike Gallagher

early hours

crackling cockroaches

underfoot

~Mike Gallagher

ruminating —

a mountain goat treads

the track less taken

~Mike Gallagher

reflections in the mirror

all the voices

in my head

~Mike Fainzilber

 

 

 

power cut

the silence

of the lamps

~Mike Fainzilber

 

Afternoon of February 21, 2024

                

biting wind odontalgia

~JL Huffman

ice fog glassy limbs genuflect

~JL Huffman

career dreams

measured in pell grants

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

pendulum

back and forth – daily

to the office and back

~Marie Derley

Democracy is no more...

Then should there be

Another revolution?

I am not sure about

That cul-de-sac.

~Partha Sarkar

Birds pecked my silence

Winter covered screaming wounds with snow

Why can't I sew myself into a cocoon

Why can't I be resurrected as a butterfly?

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Corporeal)

Death inside the head:

Love or pride?

I don't paint flowers on the wall of your back

I'm just coloring my gray lonely shadow

Question of silence:

Death or life without love?

~Mykyta Ryzhykh


(Originally published in Corporeal)

I grab the tree but its branches don't care

I'm walking through the cemetery looking for life

I cry about the living because the

dead are indifferent to everything

I don't find anyone alive anywhere in this world

Only photographs on graves speak to me of love

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in boats against the current)

The bush is devoid of all berries

Autumn is now stripping off the leaves too

The future is uncertain

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in boats against the current)

light is faster than sound

I can see them but can't hear them.

~Fhen M.

light passes through the glass window

they can't see us in this darkness.

~Fhen M.

 

wood borer beetles tracks

exposed on an old log

untranslated ancient script

~Steve Van Allen

used science fiction paperbacks

the bookstore cat

suspicious

~Randy Brooks

nature preserve

the nickname for our yard

at the block party

~Randy Brooks

 

 

 

 

portraits gallery / paintings of dead monarchs rule / please take no photos

~Charles A. Perrone

Platitudes

Words

hollow enough

to hide knives.

~Chad Parenteau

Muppet Buffalo

Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà

Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà.

~Chad Parenteau

Morning of February 21, 2024

 

THE WRITER IN HIS GARRET

thank God

for pen and paper

without them

I might have to go

talk with somebody

~John Grey

Bluefused

You creep out of the icebox,

blue-rimmed cube,

reminiscing drop kerplunks,

the aerial dance of sea and sky.

Now you’re squarely

out of circulation.

~Nolcha Fox

inevitable split infinitive inevitable

~John Hawkhead

stone hard ground yet still we pass through

~John Hawkhead

hairs on my neck

static electricity

before the first strike

~Jennifer Gurney

I can hear you breathe

in the pin-drop quiet of

the test-taking classroom

~Jennifer Gurney

I miss

newspaper ink on my fingers

every morning

~Jennifer Gurney

hitchhiker

should be more careful

bloody thumbprint

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

shouting

over the BUZZZZ

cicada year

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

skipping stones litter the cracked lake bed

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Then He Made A Noise

marsh

slog

mud suck

hips submerged

waders filling up

something noses behind my knee

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Morning of February 19, 2024

 Discovery

evidence galore

exhibits A to Zillion

hoarder in the court

~John H. Dromey

like this her gestures / yes a shadow's width apart / safe from whatever

~Charles A. Perrone

Vomiting

really sucks.

Everyone knows that, I guess.

But sometimes

we need to reaffirm

the simple truths.

~Noah Berlatsky

Help! does scream the kelp

I've washed ashore and cannot

get back to the sea!

~Charles A. Perrone

party animals

tearing the place all to shreds

making life worthwhile

~Charles A. Perrone

fangs

chasing dogs

chasing cars

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Ay, There’s the Rub

thinks boarding pass is

scratch-off lottery ticket

stranded at spaceport

~John H. Dromey

alley

coatless man and a dog

                frozen

                together

~John J. Dunphy

blood tracks

in the snow

yet it’s certain

his knife is plastic

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

AI flash mobs some assembly required

~dan smith

then when she wasn’t

she was

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

free jazz sandwich—

swiss cheese melody

hold the chords

~dan smith