Morning of July 30, 2024

 

 

 

outdoors

the housefly and I

putting our feet up

~Melissa Dennison

Olympic

flame-throwers

dragons

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

flashing church billboard

‘We love you

Sundays at 10’

~Christa Pandey

blaspheming against tv testimonials as a hobby

~Patrick Sweeney

requiem mass

donning the muted colours

of shadow

~John Hawkhead

they threw half-eaten hoagies at the Hurdy Gurdy Man

~Patrick Sweeney

Love is giving him the top half of the bagel every time.

~Rachel Turney

what if all my

dandelion wishes

come true...

~Jennifer Gurney

muscle memory

each room in the house

with its own flinch

~John Hawkhead

Bastille Day

convict breaks out

a deck of cards

~John J. Dunphy

in the sea

diving into flames

water dragons

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

the bronchial cough of the trash-picking bear

~Patrick Sweeney

no one in my reading group knew how to tie a shoe

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

Morning of July 27, 2024

 

The Burlesque Dancer

~Kelly Moyer
 
Photography available here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hold for Poet

Thank you

For your patience.

Our poets are helping

Other readers. Please do not turn

The page.

~Noah Berlatsky

it was in the Roman-controlled Antioch

in the late first century AD

that the plagiarist copied his unnamed sources

~Fhen M.

vows

after so many husbands

I know what to say

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

open window

a gentle breeze

caresses my hair

how warm your hands were

on our last meeting

~Fatma Zohra Habis

 

 

 

starred restaurant—

coming and going of flies

at lunch time

~Nicoletta Ignatti

Mud Holes

Just because you see little holes in the mud

is no reason to suspect earthworms were here.

Birthday candles are the same diameter

and mud is a kind of icing on layer years.

~Terry Trowbridge

asteroid

horizon so close you can

see your back

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

you must be this tall ↆ

to exit the quicksand

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

 

 

Morning of July 25, 2024

Llama getting ready for her book tour

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

 

 

rising

from the dead

banana bread

~Biswajit Mishra

Where does an assassin go?

Where does an assassin go?

Time is too timid to answer.

~Partha Sarkar

Captain Vibrato


You sailed on ships of light

beyond our wisps of stars.

Sent us postcards

filled with trembling trees

and all your mad fragility

that pled wish you were here.

They were postmarked immortality.

~dan smith

my open mouth

in a dentist’s chair

a nearby fly

rubs its antennae

~Arvinder Kaur

the flashing antennae—

a hiding cockroach behind

toilet flush

~Tejendra Sherchan

thefireflylessnessofdarknesswithin

~Arvinder Kaur

chewing Mona Lisa artsy cannibal ants

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

the moon had no craters,

the sun had no sunspots,

Neptune & Uranus were not planets

a time when telescopes were not invented

~Fhen M.

The sun says

The grey matter of a human's brain.

(We are proud of it!)

And "it is bright but dead"

Very often the sun says.

~Partha Sarkar

IVF clinic —

this feeling

of not being enough

~Debarati Sen

paradise 1

let's imagine that paradise does exist

let's imagine that, after having served my time in purgatory,

I could get into paradise

will I come across the old troublemakers again?

~Marie Derley

paradise 4

are we laughing in heaven?

(if not, I'm not going)

(same goes for the Wi-Fi)

~Marie Derley

the aging magician's mind

now playing tricks — on him

~John J. Dunphy

 

 

 

 

Five Fleas swag:

https://www.zazzle.com/store/five_fleas

 

Afternoon of July 22, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tapped

~Kelly Moyer 

Photography available here

lunch ladies purging communists at the kindergarten table

~Patrick Sweeney

dead drop nurse’s clumsy response

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Angelus bells vibrating the amalgams in my molars

~Patrick Sweeney

shuffle of neurons larval memories

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

summer breeze

ruffles its feathers—

lifeless pigeon

~Neena Singh

pausing

our argument…a flea

in the dog’s ear

~Neena Singh

all night rain

the driveway flooded

with earthworms

~Neena Singh

spring noon

a grasshopper and I

talk of yesteryear

~Debarati Sen

he's talking to himself...

he either has too much money in the bank

or none at all

~Patrick Sweeney

morning glory

creeps even over the road…

worm-eaten petals

~Tejendra Sherchan

silent spell

clear night’s moon

seeing the light

life becomes you

ash and dust

~Oana Maria Cercel

night sky...

so many

bedbugs

roaming freely

in my poems

~Ana Drobot

windy day...

all over around me

change

~Ana Drobot

Amusement Park

From the darkroom

Red roller

             coaster

middle of the dark tunnel,

Black, rusted seat belts locked,

Side rocks dented

The leg and roller iron down

My strong deep black belt

I hollow

Rusty tickets

~JK Kim

toppled chairs

around a dinner table

war ruins

~Stephanie Zepherelli

Instability



The brain itself is not a muscle

If you never bothered

Its ok to not be ok

It’s a selfie obsession

~Pei-Chen Ng

kindred spirits

resting against each other

tombstones

~Stephanie Zepherelli

 

 

 

 

Afternoon of July 21, 2024

                                                 Crawdaddy 

                                                ~Kelly Moyer

                                                Photography available here

rocky raccoon masking behavior

~Jerome Berglund

dragon lady

afloat in the deep end

raccoon mascara

~Randy Brooks

plenty of fish . . .

wash ashore

in the heatwave

~Kimberly Kuchar

raining men

raining apples

in a surrealistic realm

~Fhen M.

Life of Mom

On the fridge

I taped

a drawing

a house, a sun,

blue skies

“Keep practicing”

I said to her

I’ll help you

~Katie Hong

I can’t stop crying

but then—

chocolate mousse

~Sharon Ferrante

Tears

Tears are not the dishes

of diplomacy

but melancholic chirps

of a solitary nightingale.

~O.P. Jha

Life’s theatre —

We enter

Hit our marks

Say our lines

Exit on cue

 

No rehearsal

No applause

No encore

 

Reviews will

Always be mixed

~Pam Makin

Light

Night

A road that leads

To new ways

New days

 

Dawn is somewhere

Beyond darkness

 

And I am alone

 

Ranting

 

Like a prophet

~Pam Makin

etiquette blogger

so thoughtless

as a corpse

~John J. Dunphy

opening window wide

a deep breath of fresh

chemical reactions

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Orange as Ever

Gone with the wind

As all things should

The orange evening fades violet

As the leaves bristle in surprise

Life passes by

Cradled back and forth with the meshing seasons

Left in a tepid cycle

But as long as it is orange,

It’s fine.

~David Kim

Lost in Blue

Remember life

You used to be so blue

Satisfied if I play along

First embrace I shared with you

Above us, only sky

I can paint the world

It was all just make believe

~Jian Yeo

grandpa recites

a poem from Lord Byron

milking a cow

~Randy Brooks

ragout

on the polenta

no crosstalk

~Jerome Berglund

A Very Serious Gallery

 

The sign outside says

you are not welcome

if you are a Bon Jovi fan.

 

I will admit

I don’t like Bon Jovi much.

But now I wish I did.

~Noah Berlatsky

carnival rings

the various colours

of happiness

~Mona Bedi

kicking pad—

the karate kids

kick rain

~Tejendra Sherchan

grove stream—

quickens its gurgle

finding the slope

~Tejendra Sherchan

“Just relax” they said

“Go with the flow”

But they couldn’t hear the roar

of the waterfall inside my head

~Pam Makin

everything we see hides another thing,

we always want to see

what is hidden by what we see

~Fhen M.

 

Afternoon of July 19, 2024

 

 

 

 

Demitasse

~Dennis Andrew Aguinaldo

 

 

 

 

 

the wood sucker...

craftily clamping itself on

crawls up a tree

~Tejendra Sherchan

stink

stank

skunk

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

rotting log

the professor’s list

of exhausted forms

~John Pappas

some rotting turnip

the wireworm

counts the hours

~Richard Magahiz

ninety foot tulip

a pre-fab home

in its shade

~Richard Magahiz

just 2% pregnant

the ka rushes

back in

~Richard Magahiz

everything those souls

said, thought, did -

Gone. Gone. Gone.

~Richard Magahiz

"Cooking for One"

I add a book to

my divorce gift registry

~John J. Dunphy

without my glasses

can’t find the glasses I dropped

till I step on them

~James Penha

Spirit Walk

he steps out

as I step in

no one in the house

no one on the street

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

asking me

what’s in your womb

politicians

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

seijaku

seeking renewal

in silence

~Olinda Ninolakis

out of our jurisdiction shooting stars

~John Pappas

you’ll find me in fiction dusking snow

~John Pappas

back after these messages assassination nation

~John Pappas