Afternoon of March 18, 2026

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

her breath -

the air i

become

~Vijay Prasad

GPS

when did I stop

leading my life

~Anne Fox

Empty sidewalks feel

like sitting in the closet

with a bottle of spiced rum.

Unnatural, disgustingly comfortable,

That place I can easily go back to,

Time and again.

~R.C. McClennen

rain-glazed streets

a sax solo drifts

from an open window

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

his death poem

scribbled on a napkin

hospice

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

letting my guard down

I get sick

every school holiday

~Jennifer Gurney

heard there was

a power vacuum for

exclusionary journals

please consider us for your

next impersonal form rejection


~Jerome Berglund

holy war swiss accounts

~Jerome Berglund

needles of ice in the peace march wind


~John Hawkhead

counselling a word to the whys


~John Hawkhead

as if there was not a worry migrating geese


~Mona Bedi

all the stars i never saw insomnia


~Mona Bedi

sea glass what the years make of us


~Mona Bedi

fading Polaroids of my childhood

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

bus(k) stop no one paying to get on board

~Debbie Strange

a flood of lies we lose the (moral) high ground

~Debbie Strange

social media all the time we spend quiddling . . .

~Debbie Strange

still searching

in all poinsettias

a deserted love

~Tejendra Sherchan

fish curry

the cat licking

the empty bowl

~Debarati Sen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open until April 2
 

https://forms.gle/Ddv4osez67hC9DAW6 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Afternoon of March 17, 2026

 

https://forms.gle/4RLAYbLK9eR8xVFp9

the woman

who never wanted

children

now tired

of tending her houseplant

~Ruth Holzer

boxing up my books

someone else will do it

the next time

~Ruth Holzer

lauded

for their warriorship

state-sponsored rapists

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

100 copies

the day we became

the enemy from within

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

for the love

of burning oil in the morning

the chaos theory

~Wanda Amos

for over three decades

bigwigs run our state in turn

leaving trillions in debts...

and we continue to toil

in the Animal Farm

~Tejendra Sherchan

winter morn pretending we’re not sliding downhill

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

he's 45 minutes away

from his first Gaelic punchline

~Patrick Sweeney

from the back row:

what if I don't want to be myself!

~Patrick Sweeney

the deep biology of her smile

~Patrick Sweeney

suspecting some Upper Paleolithic trauma in the bloodline

~Patrick Sweeney

when you've no idea what you're doing

you've a better chance

of writing a masterpiece

~Patrick Sweeney

I keep waiting for you

to turn on the light

until I notice

that my eyes are closed.

~Noah Berlatsky

my wristwatch cursed

the hands stuck on midnight

witching hour forever


~Brian Rosenberger

tide pool

a crab

between shells


~Elliot Diamond

raining

cats and dogs

taking shelter

~Jennifer Gurney

We Are

aggregates of atoms

constellations coalesced

that get to feel

the burning arc

of stars.

~dan smith

Inventory

going through my old poems

it hits me    erasure

is the way to go

~dan smith

reinvent yourself

the last AI command

ever made by Man

~Douglas J. Lanzo

Unclaimed

The tether snaps. The blue dot shrinks. The shuttle fades. The void refuses.

~Outis

 

 

 

 

Afternoon of March 12, 2026

 

https://writersalliance.org/bacopa-literary-review/

Monoglot

I don't know what you're talking about.

~Noah Berlatsky

A Different Kind of News

As the Aral Sea is replenished

As Nigeria eliminates malaria

As Chile puts an end to leprosy

As Croatia clears all landmines

As Libya gets rid of trachoma

Wild tigers are returning to Kazakhstan

~Olinda Ninolakis

praying for peace

marching for justice

I want my country back

~Jennifer Gurney

auctioning

off our souls

war

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

ten years old

Paris runway

to the Max

~Jennifer Gurney

Kissing to make up

Then going to bed

In separate rooms

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

The fence follows the road;

the road follows the fence;

cattle push through the fence

and cross the road

to follow the grass

greener on the other side.

~Diane Webster

Jet trails streak parallel

lines across the sky;

the grocery cart wheels

track water marks

from a mudpuddle

in the parking lot.

~Diane Webster

storm split mimosa

and nowhere anyone

to blame

~Patrick Sweeney

doodling in the profit margins

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

counting now on the kids who wouldn't stay in line



~Patrick Sweeney

 

Afternoon of March 10, 2026

 

syphilitic drainage

gumming up

the world order

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

springtime pollen

a whistleblower

weeps

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

blank poem

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

press blackout cutting the eyes from potatoes


~Patricia Hawkhead

ice cold moon her expired passport

~Barrie Levine

off with our heads March wind

~Cynthia Anderson

exponential

the expanding universe

of errands

~Cynthia Anderson

the hereafter

no more battles with

rats in the walls

~Cynthia Anderson

guacamole

letting the chips fall

where they may

~Cynthia Anderson

spring, eh

someone forgot to tell them

6 geese on the frozen lake

~Tom Blessing

shouting out

all the names with pauses

a vegetable vendor

~Tejendra Sherchan

our ships

yoked near light speed

satori at last

~dan smith

start shredding the news

then history

then people

~dan smith

bloody knees

he falls all over

his excuses

~Barrie Levine

the three dots

of Orion's Belt

things we're not

allowed to say

~Ian Willey

whip-poor-will things get worse

~Ian Willey

dirty martini

soft porn

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

glacial erratic governance

~Ian Willey

wondering

how the predators find

the taste of mantis

~Tejendra Sherchan

colonoscopy?

the editor cuts out

my semi-colons

~Randy Brooks

 

Afternoon of March 6, 2026

 

 

Blank Expression

~Nicholas De Marino

summer comes

she bares herself

to the scalpel

~Joshua St. Claire

 

telling me to shut up

about the damn moon

the moon

~Joshua St. Claire

cherry blossoms

my intern

bros me

~Joshua St. Claire

No doubt

No doubt,

there are two or three butterflies

but they are not sufficient to cause spring.

~Partha Sarkar

two junipers

dusted in fresh snow

my desires have become

much simpler

these days

~Tiffany Rindler

the way dawn breaks into italics

~Tiffany Rindler

moonbeams in a puddle of insomnia

~Joanna Ashwell

more like lavender in 6/8 time

~Tiffany Rindler

mud ooze the myriad shapes and colors of  America

~Bruce H. Feingold

a wayward swan

the insomnia of not knowing

what went wrong

~Bruce H. Feingold

not a

startlingly

original

poem

~Noah Berlatsky

Regime Range

Winners

mourn

fallen

bullets,

widowed

casings.

~Chad Parenteau

les façades ont

la couleur de la poussière –

après les bombes

the facades have

the colour of dust –

after the bomb

~Marie Derley

somewhere in the Midwest

she sneaks in

in the middle of the night

and swaps

all the regular ants

for fire ants

~Nicholas De Marino

Who keeps leaving me these notes

that point out the obvious?

~Nicholas De Marino

Transition
 

At the doorstep of death

Perhaps it is another dark Sun

To shine

White blood in the vein

Life awaits to leap ahead

For another journey.

~Pravat Kumar Padhy

breaking news:

the pledge

now propaganda

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

vernal equinox

upon the scales of justice

his bloody thumb

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

Don’t we just love wars


 
trenches cherried

with torn men
 

rifle mouths

in bloom
 

the shepherd’s flute —

snapped

under jackboots
 

no song left

as keepsake

~Saba Zahoor

war declared--

Jimmy the cat and I,

sniffing the air at the open window

~Patrick Sweeney

when I was in second grade

the whole school prayed

for the president

~Patrick Sweeney

will we soon be told when to applaud

and when to weep

~Patrick Sweeney

not only the nuthatch

knows the world

is upside down


~Belinda Behne

 

thousands of voices

sing in the streets

melting the ice


~Belinda Behne

flat-earthers

but what about

their EEGs?


~Oscar Luparia