Afternoon of January 30, 2026

  

 

worried about what he might've said under anesthesia

~Patrick Sweeney

soon they'll be wanting the names of poets who are making notes

on the complexity of the red dahlia

~Patrick Sweeney

this downward spiral all uphill


~Anne Fox

sleazemore

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

running into the other autocorrect

~Vishal Prabhu

bracing himself for catastrophic replacement

~Patrick Sweeney

high treason in the streets

then back to walking

his dog

~Patrick Sweeney

Too much chaos

Thoughts put

On ice

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Aging star

Illusion

On illusion

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

there to greet me

first thing in the morning...

the heebie-jeebies

~Mark Meyer

what didn't I do?

she says I always never

or never always

~Mark Meyer

no map required...

on the road

to Wit's End

~Mark Meyer

no payment due

for 18 months

shady windows

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

full moon

mixing acrylic colors

in the cauldron


~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Curiosity

Curiosity of childhood-only simplicity that one loses forever.

~Partha Sarkar

winter night

crescent moon holding up

a drunkard

~Tejendra Sherchan

she knew I needed a big slice of cheesecake

~Patrick Sweeney

fading away a graveyard of deadnames

~John Hawkhead

full disclosure, I used to pick fleas off the pink belly of our Siamese cat

~Patrick Sweeney

 

Evening of January 27, 2026

 

Green Leader

 

 

ten below

child asks her mother

if she can

put a coat on

her snowman

~John J. Dunphy

The empty chairs

know enough

to get in

out of the rain

as they sit

under the breezeway.

~Diane Webster

Rusted hinges

clamp shut

the shutters

even as green vines

traverse the cracks

searching for an in.

~Diane Webster

On the forest floor

a mushroom blooms white.

If no one sees,

does it exist?

~Diane Webster

one long mispronunciation

~Patrick Sweeney

in the dark

tugging on the frayed sleeve

of a saint

~Patrick Sweeney

students of history

shopping for passports

~Patrick Sweeney

the difference

justice                                               justify

~Nicholas De Marino

Renée Good

Alex Pretti

I say their names

~Jennifer Gurney

same shit

two dung beetles

fight over a pile

~Lisa Sparaco

silencing

our smartphones

another emergency alert

~Lisa Sparaco

If My Poems Of Sorrow

burst into flame

I will smother them

in discarded blankets

living on smoke damage

till another poem arises

gift from the arsonist

~dan smith

Originally published in Crooked River

tormenta sin fin -

un pescado mordiendo

su propia cola

endless storm -

a fish consumes

its own tail

~David Cox

Echo of clocks

Whirligig days

Coffee IV

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

wind chill factor

the real feel

of ICE

~Cynthia Anderson

Minneapolis street

its snow

bloodied

~John J. Dunphy

 

Afternoon of January 24, 2026

 

Crabby

I've glued a sea anemone

to my hard back shell

no predatory fish see me

nor my prey

until it's much too late

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

mag 10.3

he rides the wave into

the hundredth floor

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

yard sale

a pre-loved book

on breaking up

~Alvin B. Cruz

reading

the depth of insomnia

I lie

surrounded by rows

of unread books

~Biswajit Mishra

running out

of seasons

writer’s block


~Biswajit Mishra

everything
      
saved              

for                   

future             

present          

everything

saved

for

future


~Biswajit Mishra

Yes, breakfast for three and a third today please.

Corner table, thanks.

~Scott C. Holstad

microbes bad-mouthing our oral hygiene

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

nesting season as far as the crow flies with a twig


~Sarah Paris

anti-ICE protests shaking the snow globe

~Alvin B. Cruz

as if we had

that much free time

clickbait

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

cancer

the beginning of something

new

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Scattered sunlight

Nostalgic or

Something else


~Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

portal

to all that lies ahead

a single open door

~Jennifer Gurney

a world found the courage

to stand up to a man who has lost his ever loving mind

if he ever had it in the first place

~Jennifer Gurney

gold price hits record

thousands of light-years away

from the Neutron Stars

~Tejendra Sherchan

Evening of January 22, 2026

 

trees

feel the wind sun and rain

can't hear the screams

~dan smith

When I promised I'd make you

a good husband, I didn't

mean it would be me

~Richard Magahiz

the headless camel dropped its load

  then slipped into a crack

~Richard Magahiz

half past midnight

the day spooled out

from backup

~Richard Magahiz

Epilogue

I read the book

Page by page.                         

At last, I think

The end revisits

For a new beginning.

~Pravat Kumar Padhy

red stained floor

on the slab

allies lie bleeding

~Melissa Dennison

Super Wolf Moon

my growing aversion

to the color orange

~Jackie Chou

poetry reading

the expanding belly

of a round robin

~Jackie Chou

mockingbird song

she pretends to know me

more than myself

~Jackie Chou

after the wildfires

the poke of debris

under my soles


~Jackie Chou

where the sky

meets the mountains

and the sea

the thin line between

friend and enemy

~Jackie Chou

On a Summer Day

The packed elevator

was stuck between floors

so the hot passengers

had to face the muzak.

~Gloria Parker

Greenland

modern Vikings

attracted by the name


~Douglas J. Lanzo

stop-loss orders

what politicians crave

to staunch poll bleeding

~Douglas J. Lanzo

singularity

AI stock trader

buys breakout stocks


~Douglas J. Lanzo

Berry pie

Too fresh

For its own good

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

groove worn deep

in the shape of my thumb

worry stone

~Jennifer Gurney

standing on the shore

searching the horizon

for answers

~Jennifer Gurney

Duh

Perfection

is the

enemy

of good

that wins

every time

because

it’s perfection.

~Chad Parenteau

ravaging her beauty scabies

~Tejendra Sherchan

wild cherry honey a bitch's love

~Tejendra Sherchan

secure in the knowledge of super-glue

~Michael Henry Lee

righting as many

wrongs as possible

upside down cake

~Michael Henry Lee

biting us

in the name of democracy

for decades...

the snake trapped

in a spider's web

~Tejendra Sherchan

right-side up

in an upside down world

hanging flowers


~Albert Schlaht

a sudden gust

takes his foul air

and moves it along—

fleeing pigeons

~Albert Schlaht

 

 

 

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

Afternoon of January 21, 2026

 

 

why the long face year of the horse

~thomas david

 

used guitar

 no strings

 attached

~thomas david

abandoned house

my childhood memories

foreclosed

~thomas david

Crooked River Thoughts at Night

prints and paintings

cannot capture the moonlight

on the once burning river

~dan smith

deep winter

in the middle of the end

a beginning

~John Pappas

 

once you learn lightning can come

from the ground you're standing on

~Patrick Sweeney

the maintenance crew admitted

to having a distorted view

of confetti for tyrants

~Patrick Sweeney

encased in two-inch glass

the silence of the eagle-bone whistle

~Patrick Sweeney

the librarians who haven't received letters of reprimand

~Patrick Sweeney

when they gave away her kittens

Alfie waited by the back of the refrigerator for weeks

~Patrick Sweeney

he felt like a wide-eyed extra

running for his life in a monster movie

~Patrick Sweeney

even the land of make-believe

has its agonies

~Patrick Sweeney

rainy days

noxious weeds thriving

in my head

~Mohua Maulik

 

migraine

a washing machine churning

my insides

~Mohua Maulik

 

reunion—

that old smile framed

by chemo curls

~Mohua Maulik

blazing sun

holding the world to ransom

one person

~Mohua Maulik

the lace pattern

fails expert scrutiny

my struggle

to balance holding on

with letting go

~Mohua Maulik

homeless man

bathed

shaved

dressed in clean clothes

for his funeral

~John J. Dunphy

quantum physics class

my final grade

keeps changing

~John J. Dunphy

drought

an anthill beneath

our downspout

~John J. Dunphy

Game on

plays chess no man's land alone between

one for all and all for one- a fake generosity.

~Partha Sarkar

 

whose dream the float of a cellophane butterfly

~John Pappas

 

 

 

fireworks on January 3rd

leftovers or

the shortest year in history?

~Oliver Kleyer