Evening of May 7, 2024

7.951 billion people on trash day

~Patrick Sweeney

searching for a phrase in the snowy ash of my burned-up journals

~Patrick Sweeney

suspicious behavior...he's circling the violets again

~Patrick Sweeney

the witness said he was counting the petals on a rose when shots were fired

~Patrick Sweeney

Webbing

Among more than 4,600 kinds of spiders

We belong to the one that knits a single web

Throughout its lifetime, throwing out all

Its silk, not to catch flies or insects, but

To contribute to the making of a shroud

~yuan changming

maple tree bangs

against my window

a cry for help

~Patricia Carragon

hospital dinner

i ask for soy

and hot sauce

~Tom Blessing

after surgery

one perk

warm blanket

~Tom Blessing

self-driving car

ignores the suggestions from

its backseat driver

~John J. Dunphy

May's heat

the first cicadas

emerge

~B. L. Bruce

Cicada’s Secret

You expend your whole lifetime in soiled darkness

Only to sing a single song high up on a tree

At the sunniest moment of the season. Though too

High-pitched, too mono-toned to the ear, your voice

Sounds like heavenly music to someone that can not

Only recognize you from myriad others, but remain

Your true soulmate until the end of the day

~yuan changming

blue hour

ships passing

silently

~B. L. Bruce

freedom

out of small crack

the chick

~Satyanarayana Chittaluri

barking

in the door gap

a shadow

~Satyanarayana Chittaluri

noise cancelling:

airplane engine droning

drowns tinnitus

~Morag Elizabeth Humble

when the noise stops

silence, once longed for

is deafening

~Jennifer Gurney

Sound of Fury

In this vast

Valley full

Of red dust

Each noise

Is an echo

Of what has

Been muted

As a protest

Or warning

~yuan changming

solitude . . .

my loud thoughts dilute

into the forest floor

into the cloudy sky

and the path ahead

~Anthony Lusardi

packed train

a passenger sits

shaving her legs

~Tuyet Van Do

woolly caterpillar,

I'm down to the log

you were sleeping on

~Patrick Sweeney

first snake sighting

I put away

my winter coat

~John J. Dunphy

Here in This Antlike Moment

Here in this antlike moment

Arise my spirits

Illuminating my own shadow

They’re up against the dark cloud

Ready to join in a heavy storm

Shooting like a thunder

Now I see the unlimited sky

Besides the cracking light

Now I know my fate

~yuan changming

looking skyward

lifted by your graceful flight

I grow wings

~Jennifer Gurney