Morning of November 5, 2025

 

 

Prehibernation

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Most of Us

I’m not a poet anyone will mourn,

there will be no elegies.

My words won’t linger very long

before their vanishing.

That’s the fate of most of us,

with small talent, no legacy.

So if you read this, think of me

a little while alone.

~Noah Berlatsky

The man arrested stole the candy bar,

But it was halloween,

and he was allergic to chocolate.

~Shawn Scott Smith

dreams of a sweet treat

hidden in the back of fridge

devoured by others

~Joanne Macias

crying child

clings to his handcuffed dad

the arresting ICE agents

their hearts

unmelted


~John J. Dunphy

conservative activist —

flying around the country

to share her message that

a woman's place

is in the home

~John J. Dunphy

our priorities

before and after

January 6

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

as I sleep

an extinct bug

bites my neck

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

a dragon's life is always lonely

unless people are hungry

and want s'mores

~Joanne Macias

enter a new world

yet it still feels familiar

deep inside your soul

realising we are not

so different after all

~Joanne Macias

dangers lurk above

tree canopies interlock

breathing in nature

~Joanne Macias

hurtling at the speed

of 2.1 million km per hour

our Milky Way

~Tejendra Sherchan

time bending brain :: brain bending time

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

 

 

Afternoon of November 4, 2025

Green Head

reaching across

uncanny valley

from the wrong side

~Nicholas De Marino

Obstruct My Vision

 

Through a cracked lens

I know him, truly.

Pedestal man

So close, I see

Appalling beauty

Others mistake.

~Emily Keverne

Stall the Dawn

 

One sheep… two sheep… treesheep… feep…

Lethargic, but I cannot sleep.

I try to make a game and keep

Awake, to lure the Sandman’s creep

But, though I’m tired enough to weep

The night succeeds.

~Emily Keverne

Tiger, Tiger

Burn. As the Man churns

Timber from your forestry.

Burn, burn prettily.

~Emily Keverne

slipping on black ice masks

~John Hawkhead

roar...(p)atriarchal (m)edical (s)tudies

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

third time today

resisting the urge

to quote Kris Kristofferson

~Patrick Sweeney

war everywhere

and I'm writing about nobody noticing

my one blue sock

~Patrick Sweeney

Snow From Snow

 

The snow 

covers up 

all the places

where my dad was.

 

Then it grows wings

and is not there.

~Noah Berlatsky

Perspective

 

From this angle the cat

Is very large and orange.

 

From some angles she is less orange.

From all angles she is large.

~Noah Berlatsky

fly in the ointment...

guess I'm stuck with you

~Mark Meyer

backhanded compliment she calls me pluperfect

~Mark Meyer

death bed

no less

a fool

~M. R. Pelletier

"social" media

the lie

we tell ourselves

~M. R. Pelletier

first frost 

field mice

raid the root cellar

~Belinda Behne

The Dream of Art

 

I dream I am in the house of a famous artist.

I cannot leave because I cannot find my shoes.

I search for hours but I cannot find my shoes.

 

I need better dreams.

~Noah Berlatsky

Day of the Dead

no different

doomscrolling

~Helen Buckingham

Return home

Return home safely dead before cremation.

~Partha Sarkar

Milky Way hosting

four hundred billion planets

still we are alone

~Tejendra Sherchan

billboard moon

she crams civilization

into a gas station rubbish bin

~Joshua St. Claire

hypochondria

I wonder what kind of flower

I’ll be

~Joshua St. Claire

the once when orange was a color but not a scent

~Joshua St. Claire

Morning of October 31, 2025

pumpkins —

the world of slyboots

amidst darkness

~Maria Cristina Pulvirenti

blue hour moon . . .

the ghost of you dancing

in the hallway

~Veronika Zora Novak

between

jade peaks . . .

a dragon's eye

~Veronika Zora Novak

playground mayhem everything we seesaw

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

counting candy

at the kitchen table—

hallotweens


~Julie Bloss Kelsey

moving day—

the rice cooker 

leaves for college

~Julie Bloss Kelsey

Suddenly

Suddenly all strangers seem to be known to me.

~Partha Sarkar

A human face

A human face tells different fairy tales without conclusion.

~Partha Sarkar

link death

number one cause

is

~Noah Berlatsky

a flower is only friends with its own roots

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

gazing at scenic mountain views a bear

~Tejendra Sherchan

indeterminate numbers

and empty bellies

~Patrick Sweeney

freed from the constraints of reason

inviting daily

hybrid disasters
 

~Patrick Sweeney

all day, what's wrong with the country

all night, what's wrong with me

~Patrick Sweeney

he hoped there would be ravens in the tall grasses of heaven

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

Trick or Treat

I fear

the worst

~Helen Buckingham

Afternoon of October 29, 2025

 

Work Shirt

~dan smith

daylight savings not FDIC insured may lose value

~Cynthia Anderson

dry bones a tumbleweed at the door

~Cynthia Anderson

proving I’m not a bot to a bot

~Mark Gilbert

an insistent pleading just to see what is already plain to see

~Mark Gilbert

the crackle of needle stuck in the groove

~Mark Gilbert

raid

man strikes

an ICE agent

with his

white cane

~John J. Dunphy

back to standard time

to reschedule the rooster

and even the sheep


~Oscar Luparia

electrical blackout

not a big deal

at the Halloween party


~Oscar Luparia

pumpkin yarn

the eyes aglow

with mischief

~Joanna Ashwell

this urge

to call you again . . .

thawing water pipes

~Gordon Gearhart

passing through

the shrunken head exhibit

dead snapdragons

~Gordon Gearhart

barren shelves

at the food pantry

hunger moon

~Gordon Gearhart

this reluctance to be photographed on the cell phone Luna

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

a suffering rooted in innocence OCD

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

another year without you november rain


~Mona Bedi

drops of rain on bent wires this grief


~Mona Bedi

there will be

goodbyes to you

the rest of my life

~Jennifer Gurney

more pieces of the puzzle

missing every day

mom’s dementia

~Belinda Behne

across the world

a sign of respect

frogs

~Jennifer Gurney

scratched and bleeding

~dan smith

Afternoon of October 26, 2025

dressing up as an upcoming birthday to scare an existential crisis out of myself

~Martina Matijević

his ego built brick by brick

~Bipasha Majumder (De)

 

RETURN OF THE MEASLES?

ten fleas leap from the bed

~Pris Campbell

my body's atoms billions of years old

~Tejendra Sherchan

afternoon chat

in front of the fireplace –

poison tea

~Nicoletta Ignatti

a grave miss stake

confusing left and right

~dan smith

I imagine

turning the Bailong Elevator

into a cosmic one

~Tejendra Sherhan

what fun

to lose myself

in disarray

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

softest breeze

i wish you had been

my first husband

~Tiffany Rindler

his focus was entirely on the 'why' nobody bothered

to shoo the fly from the gorgonzola

~Patrick Sweeney

expect real-time shortages of tear gas and concertina wire

~Patrick Sweeney

the boy with freckles wants to know why

we ruined the world

~Patrick Sweeney

whispering the names of pallbearers in the green kitchen

~Patrick Sweeney

writing in my notebook is making everyone nervous

~Patrick Sweeney

Post Mortem: the last person he googled was himself

~Patrick Sweeney

clink of cans

nestling into place

pantry-geist

~Nicholas De Marino

 

a small boy

searches the field for it

the Great Pumpkin

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

four street lamps –

my shadows

all the same

~Antonio Mangiameli

 

“A nation is made of borders!”

No.

Of neighbors.

~Noah Berlatsky

daring thoughts

how we’re naked

beneath our clothes

~Peter Jastermsky