Afternoon of April 29, 2025

 


Hotel Note


~Kelly Sauvage Moyer




dust motes

in a sunlight shaft

this rhetoric

of existentialism

every now and then

~Arvinder Kaur




It don't mean a thing

if Buddha ain't got that zen,

so blow that green smoke!

~Morley Cacoethes

 

 



Tell me, cat, when you

reincarnate, will you come

back as homeless me?

~Morley Cacoethes




Gritting My Rodent-Resembling Teeth


Triturating my rodent-resembling top teeth on

their nether, underneath counterparts

gritting them like a tree’s bark against a saw,

like a nail file against a cat’s overly sharp claws,

I wither myself away into ivory shards;


Admittedly, when I have no sustenance I gnaw

on my body’s infinitely available flaws,

until I’m left dismantled in my own boneyard.

~Mira Fox




The Very Itch of Me


within the shadows i lurk and when you least except it there i am floating upon you with

deepening urges desiring in impaling you –annoyingly hovering over you constantly dancing

about you –longing to be near and close as your ear humming my cravings in touching you

everywhere anywhere you leave expose to me; legs arms fingers lips neck and back –your skin

so erotically appetizing –exciting me into a frenzy of implying and suckling upon you –tickling

your toes nibbling at those tender lobes exploring all of you –i loiter in stalking you till i pounce

drinking you in filling myself full of you sharing the very disease of me –then taking flight only

to return –addicted to the very DNA of you for our bond is strong –such intimacy we shared

having left my mark upon you –causing you to recall remembrances in the very itch of me.


~Michael Butkovich

 

 


long after

the ink has dried

family, still

~Jennifer Gurney





The Good Fight

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer





 

 

 

 





Collapsed squares become wrecktangles.

~Richard Kostelanetz




Death’s life’s “bottom line.”

~Richard Kostelanetz




Robots are modern slaves.

~Richard Kostelanetz




Some speak nonsense unintentionally.

~Richard Kostelanetz




Correct punctuation goes unnoticed.

~Richard Kostelanetz




Whatever is was possible.

~Richard Kostelanetz




rumbling thunder

silencing all the chattering

for once

~Tejendra Sherchan




green skies

I try to remember

Earth

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel




lost colony

naught but shard and bone

a howl at the moons

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel




between wishing and fulfilment Saturn’s transit


~Arvinder Kaur




green spring loving the alien

~Scott Wiggerman




hidden tunnel

light on the other

side of the world

~Scott Wiggerman




responding

to an ancient call

mourning doves

~Scott Wiggerman



closed casket

a fly mourns

to get in

~Scott Wiggerman




the bulldozer

is faster than the tree

law of the jungle

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

 

 

Deadline May 1: Nominate (2024) poetry

for the Dwarf Stars 2025 Anthology

http://www.sfpoetry.com/dwarfstars.html

 


 



Morning of April 26, 2025

 


RULES OF THUMB


Desire is bad for your posture,

Thinking is bad for your breath,

Life is bad for your health

~Richard Collins




class action

with all your

spare time

~Jerome Berglund




Good Dog


The good dog has one job:

do not step in poop.


She failed.

~Noah Berlatsky




our grandfathers

firing cannons

above the clouds

~Jerome Berglund




seasons below ground

only if

you change floors

~Jerome Berglund




YES, EMPTINESS


These snowcloud mountains

struck by a slanting

sliver of dawn — 

an avalanche 

of silence.

~Richard Collins




local eatery

an adjacent diner

finger-combing his beard

~Tuyet Van Do




The Brave Thing


what’s left of your face is swollen

another nurse every six hours

who you will never

have children with

keeps looking

at her phone.


~John Dorsey




Progress


Few appreciate

the ubiquitous flush toilet

but elderly folks,

often repeatedly,

WHOOSH

watch and

wonder.

~Allan Lake




HALF MOON FULL BRIGHT


a broken silver doubloon

bitten in half by a toothless knight

this half moon still shines 

its full worth

~Richard Collins



 

the night hoots

a worm moon

slips to day


~Elliot Diamond




Moon shimmering

Plum blossoms

The cards I’ve been dealt

~Sarah Mahina Calvello




Weird feeling

Living a loop

Déjà vu

~Sarah Mahina Calvello




length of day

a dung beetle

rolling eyes


~Elliot Diamond



I WAS BORN IN 1952


I was born in 1952, a year most stellar,

ten years after the book Old Yeller,


when England first heard The Goon Show,

which revolutionized radio,


with Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers,

spawning a generation of funny fellers.


and who could forget Singin’ in the Rain

with Gene Kelly higher on love than cocaine


and to think: I was just minus seven

when Hiroshima was sent to heaven.

~Richard Collins




war in hyperlink
 

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

 

https://sonicboomjournal.wixsite.com/sonicboom/world-collage-day
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


Morning of April 22, 2025

 


art therapy

a pinch of stardust

in the school glue

~words & image Kelly Sauvage Moyer




an old world map

with colours distributed

according to borders

on winter days the pleasure

of being behind the shutters

~Marie Derley




a drop

             p

                   o

                        i

                            n

                                  t

                                      s

to each passing cloud

~Vijay Prasad




Little cat,

I would let you lick me

but your tongue is rough

and it hurts.

~Noah Berlatsky




used book store

a museum for sale

smell of old paper

~Alper Ghuchlu




homecoming

where only unknown birds

sing for me

~Tejendra Sherchan




sun

day

    sat    

  nav 

    gazing

~Helen Buckingham




aloe vera

once green fingers

now jaded

~Helen Buckingham




communion Sunday

the body of Christ

stuck to the roof of my mouth

~John J. Dunphy




Societies


Ants carry the creature without knowing

Whether it is alive or dead.


~Labanya Chowdhury




The Blue Bottle

Blue bottles qualify as forensic,

leaving eggs on rotting corpses,

helping estimate the time of death.

~Paul O. Jenkins




first spring robin

arrives on my doorstep

and poops


~Belinda Behne




Is it really the end of the world?


it's ok when things fail

it's not the end of the world

ok maybe it is

if it were to happen when

you jumped out of a plane

~Joanne Macias




imitating the peach blossoms mexican devil

~Tejendra Sherchan




Inside out makes it more bearable.

~Dom Bond




Murky water

too deep

for me to look.

~Dom Bond




40ish


Life is half over-

     That's a real scare.

May be less-

     Some people don't care.

For a while I didn't-

     But now I know.

Life's about half over-

     Half my time to go.

~Dan Shawver



Spring morning

the fizz gone

from my cider

~Laila Brahmbhatt




pickled memories


2002

the cabernet

we mistook for love

~Terri L. French/Kelly Sauvage Moyer




leveraged lentils


firing pasta shells

in the pantry

a brigade of pinto beans

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer/Terri L. French




midnight, ripe


perimenopause

a swarm of fruit flies

drenched in moonglow

~Heidi McIver/Kelly Sauvage Moyer




for years

this long silence

but still,

a stranger’s cigarette smoke

and you appear

~C. Jean Downer




dark

within the dark

malicious cells

~Maya Daneva




seeing pink silicate chains in the cotton candy...

he wasn't making it

in this happy world

~Patrick Sweeney




even if you see it 

don't say: 

a cauliflower ear descending a staircase

~Patrick Sweeney




secretly adopting some of the ascetics of the daddy-longlegs

~Patrick Sweeney




what car doors closing do to the lonely hearted

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 


my rote supplications to the God of 2-trillion galaxies

~Patrick Sweeney

 

Evening of April 17, 2025


 

the old man found the words to make her a poem

~Patrick Sweeney




Old man plays his violin

in a doorway of shade;

people down the street

turn their backs

but listen still.

~Diane Webster




The boat sinks

below

the surface

of the water

now reflective

after erasure.

~Diane Webster




getting adjusted again

to the weight

of the world

~Patrick Sweeney




in the chapel

we raise up our heads

to catch a glimpse

~RJ Humbl




The pier was built

so people could

walk on water

and still stay dry.

~Diane Webster




for all his subtextual acuity

he was dumbfounded to discover

he'd been in a French restaurant for hours

~Patrick Sweeney




Inauguration Day

a woman jumps

onto the tracks

~Ruth Holzer




fleeing his city

a man with a crutch

and a water bottle

~Ruth Holzer




listen, if you don't mind, I can't spend my vacation

talking about the position a cockroach holds

in the cosmic scheme of things

~Patrick Sweeney




ten milligrams away from melancholy this new life

~Ruth Holzer




play-acting my debut on google earth

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




he feels personally rejected if you say you don't like Jerry Lewis movies

~Patrick Sweeney




seven seas of microplastics colonizing Mars

~Ruth Holzer




before installing her eyes scan me for malware

~Vijay Prasad




legal jeopardy so many questions remain

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




he did everything he could with the turnips he was given

~Patrick Sweeney