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

 

Morning of April 16, 2025

 

The Ideal Mitten

I would rather much be

in the middle of

a greater in

the middle of

with a prescription and

a lozenge and

a very good dog

~Noah Berlatsky

Sally the pet snail

From orange to orange leaf

Takes about a week

From leaf to orange

About a month

Snail trail

In a bowl

Choreography

~Olinda Ninolakis

no place for birds anywhere


~Mykyta Ryzhykh

already tomorrow's name of monkeypox

~petro c. k.

Making contact with aliens, trying to throw a space-themed party. No response. Yet.

~Martina Matijević

a cyst only sound of the storm

~petro c. k.

stepping in footsteps following every day of the moon

~petro c. k.

the old pond

filled in

with concrete

~Melissa Dennison

Moths circle

'round the flame

itchy pallbearer stands still


~Laila Brahmbhatt

highway

devouring rocky mountains

a giant serpent

~Tejendra Sherchan

Small coffins are too heavy to carry

'Small coffins are too heavy to carry,'

Whispers make the air heavier.

~Partha Sarkar

conversing boulders

our children build

human cities

~Tejendra Sherchan

the curve

where the accident occurred

wildflowers


~Joseph P. Wechselberger

three point

one four one five nine

etcetera

~Jennifer Gurney

hospice

the dying woman's hair

dyed

~John J. Dunphy

election night

scurrying around campaign central

cockroaches


~Joseph P. Wechselberger

this poem has an existential crisis so it has no meaning

~Martina Matijević

my grocery list a failed haiku


~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

war as a kigo for spring 2025 in a standard haikuist's dictionary

~Martina Matijević 

 

Morning of April 11, 2025

 

skin tag you're it

~Eavonka Ettinger

cross words

filling in the blank

spaces

~Eavonka Ettinger

inner core

shape-shifting

planet Earth

~Eavonka Ettinger

a-e-i-o-u

and sometimes

why

~Barrie Levine

taking up space

in his rock collection

my brother’s baby teeth

~Barrie Levine

someone’s soul

in the meadow silence

becomes a bug

~Mile Lisica

I turn off the lights

to see the constellation

in the horse's eyes

~Mile Lisica

on a journey

the unknown memory

in warm coffee

~Mile Lisica

summer meadow

a girl and her dog

unleashed


~Wendy Cobourne

psych class

she listens closely

to her voices


~Wendy Cobourne

conch shell horn

first contact

from another universe

~Randy Brooks

outdoor theatre

leaves spiral through

intermission

~Randy Brooks

Just filthy

Enough to work

Freudian slip

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

winter wearing layers wrinkles

~Radhika De Silva

the loaded tumbrels of historical destiny

~Patrick Sweeney

don't expect an ovation if you see the blue veins in the blonde temple of the sun

~Patrick Sweeney

it's because you invited that nosey poet who kept asking everyone to point to their souls

~Patrick Sweeney

 

Afternoon of April 9, 2025

 

Live and Let DEI Anthology:

Submit one poem this month to Winning Writers

 

 

            at the door

            a quartet of gargoyles

            new neighbors

            ~Stephanie Zepherelli

            changing the world

            children turn a map

            upside down

            ~Stephanie Zepherelli

            final ascent

            the inconvenience

            of falling flat

            ~Stephanie Zepherelli

bones bones bones

the creaking bones

I still call mine

~Robert Epstein

how apropos

after cleaning the kitchen

sponge cake

~Robert Epstein

discipline

discipline

midnight

~Robert Epstein

afterlife

but I am such

a homebody

~Robert Epstein

grandpa navigates
 
market change

one meme stock at a time

~Douglas J. Lanzo

sand

in my slippers

I dream of the ocean

~Jiel Narvekar

counting my blessings …

grateful even

for the odd

~Kelly Sargent

roses on clearance

how men no longer

look me in the eye

~Kelly Sargent

after much thought

I RSVP Mars

. . . no thanks

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

The cat-surf laps

At the milk-bowl beach.

~V. Grout

spring brings new neighbors…

unpacking curiosities

~Sarah Mirabile-Blacker

at the playground

birds talk

children screech

~Sarah Mirabile-Blacker

crows at dusk

pirates

pilfering snacks

~Sarah Mirabile-Blacker

 

 

Both journals now open:

                                                  Darkly Beautiful & Joyfully Wondrous