Morning of September 4, 2025

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://femkumag.wixsite.com/home/guidelines

 

  

border crossing

an elephant stamps

my passport

~Colleen M. Farrelly

climate change

a flooded trunk

the elephant in the room

~Robert Witmer

Angles of Doubt

equilateral: a triangle with all angles equal to 60 degrees

symmetry

isosceles: a triangle with two congruent sides

the wandering eyes

obtuse: a triangle with an angle greater than 90 degrees

I pretend not to notice

~Colleen M. Farrelly

tinkling triangles

the Pythagorean orchestra

a roomful of squares

~Robert Witmer

twilight

falls into the pond

a last lotus blossom

on an unfinished poem

~Colleen M. Farrelly

bodies entwined

the last dance of the wasp

with the spider

~Melissa Dennison

the rhythm and clank

of magnets

I disappear through a wormhole

~Melissa Dennison

end of the season

the days are getting shorter

little by little

our shadows lengthen

before disappearing

 

fin de saison

les jours raccourcissent

petit à petit

nos ombres s’allongent

avant de s’estomper

 ~Marie Derley

Past and Future Writer’s Block

 

If future me had a time machine

I would come back to present me

and offer inspiration.

~Noah Berlatsky

another troubled summer sleepless flies

~Robert Witmer

heading north great white sharks

~Tejendra Sherchan

thought a staircase ending mid air

~Vijay Prasad

full of himselfie

~Robert Witmer

starlight all the gods of aliens

~Anne Fox

 

golden field -

the courage to be light

in a world turmoil

~Maria Cristina Pulvirenti

her sunglasses

blocking out the U-me

~Richard L. Matta

frozen account

a bitcoin bounces

at the bank

~Richard L. Matta

panning for gold

near the bank

the river of time

~Robert Witmer

thickly layered paint

war and peace

every time a bit different

~Maya Daneva

Ekphrastic

gnostic reading

my paintin' shoes

are canvas too

~dan smith

1980

in my best party dress

I change parties

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

church service

MAGA supporters

and opponents

pray to

the same God

~John J. Dunphy

birdsong…

the many names of god

decreasing daily

~Anne Fox

almost home

the ever-moving edge

of other

~Anne Fox

 

my life

a raindrop

on its way to a flood

~Robert Witmer

 

Morning of August 30, 2025

 

 

putting on airs

our android housekeeper

claims she can trace

her ancestry back

to Roomba

~John J. Dunphy

AI- the sand-man

Beware of AI- the sand-man.

A warning for the children making sand-castles-

the placid sanctum of childhood.

~Partha Sarkar

tears

in an analog

Universe

~Patrick Sweeney

I see you answered 'yes' to fears of asphyxiation...

the blue pilot light in the sulphur yellow kitchen

~Patrick Sweeney

on the brink of sainthood

a weary shopper's

smile

~Patrick Sweeney

a hundred years on the boardwalk

the water-ice man's translucent as a sea butterfly

~Patrick Sweeney

first date

between AI robots

avoiding the deep questions

~Douglas J. Lanzo

lunar cavity

pangs of regret

for dentists left on earth

~Douglas J. Lanzo

Mötley Crüe

an old track

run by painted wolves

~Douglas J. Lanzo

alien gardeners

seeds replace humans

beware spring


~Brian Rosenberger

metallic eyes in the sky

funded by taxpayers

your dollars watch you


~Brian Rosenberger

temperatures rising

ice cream truck melts

screams from the street


~Brian Rosenberger

on the edge of town the carnival sleeps

~Mark Gilbert

stopstart stopstart stopstart poptart

~Mark Gilbert

officer hit!

assault with a deadly

sandwich


~Kimberly Kuchar

Thought I heart crickets

In the misty stillness

Changes come

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

Rest now

Breathe in some cool air

Rustic mushrooms

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

marco, polo

he steals

second base

~Amber Winter

Follow Me

get behind and form a line

I’ll try not to lead you astray

step-by-step and all in time 

get behind and form a line

do not disobey and do not decline

just blindly trust I know the way 

get behind and form a line

I’ll try not to lead you astray

class leader my favorite 1st grade job

~Amber Winter

Road is a story

Road is an unending story that never returns to its base point.

~Priyank Biswas

laid on the grass

so many poets

drinking moonshine

~Joanna Ashwell

night quilt

the star-moss

of dreams

~Joanna Ashwell

coral caves

the weave of a tail

mermaiding

~Joanna Ashwell

inbox left to dwell in unopened

~Joanna Ashwell

more of story

than a sentence

morning hiatus

~Joanna Ashwell

GN-z11 the edge of time becomes clearer

~John Hawkhead

sweeping away dust we always were

~John Hawkhead

worm charmers forming an inner circle

~John Hawkhead

Mana

 

R. Cree-

ly undertook a

wisdom sand-

wich.

 

He sd

I’ve got butt-

er God but

not enough enjam-

bment.

~Noah Berlatsky

Now we come to nine

Day after day after day

And now we are here.

~Charles A. Perrone

pink slip

the daylight at work

widens


~Christa Pandey

one by one

letting go of pretty things

river fishes too

~Tejendra Sherchan

the power

of a single uttered word

hospice

~Jennifer Gurney

herpetology-

the most colorful

are deadliest

~dan smith

files-

that worry me

are those on us

~dan smith

talk radio-

when they said freedom

it sounded like barbed wire

~dan smith

the last word he said autumn rain

~Mona Bedi

light years away our forefathers

~Mona Bedi

tin-can phone

my grandson calls me

from oceans away

~Mona Bedi

lost identity

a mockingbird mimics

my song

~Mona Bedi

from our earth

124 light-years away

potential alien life

~Tejendra Sherchan

Afternoon of August 26, 2025

 

My musician friend

Is a
Roman
cathedral

made of
pawn shop
guitars

and empty
vodka bottles.

~Matthew Borczon

My writer friend

Writes letters
to his dead friends

and poems
for lost jobs

but can’t tell his
wife what’s wrong

so she no longer
bothers asking.

~Matthew Borczon

My war friend

Keeps a dog tag
laced into his work
boot to identify

him after he steps
on an IED

something
no one but

he thinks could happen

here in
Pennsylvania.

~Matthew Borczon

the ghostly image

of last night's haiku

has escaped me

~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky

famous for fifteen seconds

the time it takes

to read a haiku

~Charles Harmon

my ancestors

killing my ancestors

buffalo soldiers

~Charles Harmon

reliving our lives

dreaming of children

we never had

~Charles Harmon

dandelion apocalypse

at ninety

he surrenders

~Charles Harmon

Melting honey

On flour tortillas

Soft rain

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Growing Up

After my dad died my mom told me to go home.

After my dad died my mom wanted to get back to her routine.

I went home.

 

They grow up and they leave you and they don’t need you any more.

~Noah Berlatsky

the sentence of life (,) (;) (:) (!) and (…) ending with (.)

~Pravat Kumar Padhy

artist’s cursive writing into the rising of waves

~Pravat Kumar Padhy

consciousness of the cosmos I am part of

~Pravat Kumar Padhy

all those finches and chickadees at my theoretical bird feeder

~Patrick Sweeney

how relaxing coal miners gossip with the midnight stars

~Pravat Kumar Padhy

folded and unfolded her soaked handkerchief


~Pravat Kumar Padhy

I've had any number of requests to stop asking unanswerable questions

~Patrick Sweeney

causes of continental drift:

half-credit for...

'Loneliness and escape'

~Patrick Sweeney

he's quoting Camus again

and listening

to The Cure

~Patrick Sweeney

multilingual...

belonging to a world

of petals

~Katherine E Winnick

a singing bird

most of their names

still unknown

~Tejendra Sherchan

Oil and Trouble (or Iraq is Back in Black)

We barrel forward to those 20 billion barrels

A narrow corridor to whet the greed for more

To bleed black gold into the sea where Black blood

Drove sharks to chase the feed.

The ‘Hel is repetition. Still, it proceeds.

~Chris Courtney Martin

winds of time sway

each grass blade to abandon

the field that raised

~Allen David Simon

The Psychophancy

more than just hands and feet

must be kissed

~dan smith

paralyzed

from a car wreck

he rises

from his wheelchair in

the zero-gravity room

~John J. Dunphy

Meh

A bursting

heart

eclipsed by

silhouette

of shrugged

shoulders.

~Chad Parenteau

Satire’s Swift Death

MY GOD

THEY’RE

EATING

ME

ALIVE!

(no joke)

~Chad Parenteau

Blank Page


An empty field
    gazes back,
meets the stare
       of uninspired eyes.

Mute accusations,
     a response lost
somewhere on the margin
           of a vacant lot.

~Bob Carlton

Compensation


In dying

we lose the galaxy

but gain the universe

in return.

~Bob Carlton

Act Accordingly


is is

the will be

of was

~Bob Carlton

Contemplating


Darkness closes over
     the sun,
and the night holds
           no promise
of any light
    but cold
                 dead
                          stars.

~Bob Carlton