Afternoon of December 28, 2025

 

Christmas morning

my cat gifts me

a hairball

~John J. Dunphy

Christmas swim -

the indifferent sea

swallows two men

~Penny Lowery

I watch the fruitcake

gifted to us

by our neighbor

being devoured by

a squirrel

~John J. Dunphy

We ordered Christmas dinner

and then forgot the restaurant closed at 12.

There will be no Christmas dinner.

We may have to eat the elves.

~Noah Berlatsky

Christmas Eve

no room at

the homeless shelter

~John J. Dunphy

burning log -


deep winter

outside

~Maria Cristina Pulvirenti

Get sick

Get well

It’s hard to tell

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

The edge


Of disarrayed change


Screeching window crows

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

re dact

un re dact

re re dact

dact

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

in the beehive democracy

~Tejendra Sherchan

snowflakes changing my point of view


~Cezar Ciobîcă

war dove

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

you too can be a conjunction

~Tiffany Rindler

the dusk you dream of becoming

~Tiffany Rindler

i was

the river

and so

were you

~Tiffany Rindler

just now

watching the sun

become a black hole

~Sharon Ferrante

when I mix red and green

      and yellow and blue

I get only brown


~Mark Gilbert

forgetting/

her/

number/

forgetting/

mine/

~Mark Gilbert

pushing this cage on wheels

from room to room,

never complaining,

and yet she’s a Capricorn,

like me

~Mark Gilbert

Roswell, New Mexico

its first tourist from

another planet

~John J. Dunphy

writer's block


the chatbot encourages me


to change my muse

~Cezar Ciobîcă

winter evening


the stone angel asks


for a hug


~Cezar Ciobîcă

happy new year

don’t disillusion me…

sounding like rain

I’m just wind

through old trees

~Sharon Ferrante

unwrapping

the New Year

batteries not included

~Alvin B. Cruz