Morning of April 25, 2026

Don't Stare!

uninvited guests 

   not apologizing 

      for the mess

         I’ve become

~Bryan Rickert

her hospital voice

a crumpled piece of paper

made smooth

~Bryan Rickert

Fathomless foam  

Fathomless foam- 

One has to cross sea after sea after being drowned. 

~Partha Sarkar

Insight

The beginning of the beginning

of the beginning of the beginning

of the beginning of the beginning

of the beginning of the beginning

of the beginning of the beginning...

~Chad Parenteau

Still in love

Sweet bitterness of blackbirds

Legacy of hope

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Something magic 

Layers upon layers

Of sunset 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

weird girl 

i have always been

a weird girl,

they use it as an insult;

but i don't cling to

prayers of normalcy

i get to walk where i want—

maybe i'm not the one

who should change.

~linda m. crate 

i walk the astral realm

just let my dreams

be reality,

there's something broken

in this world;

and i'm ready to go home.

~linda m. crate

remembering magic & dreams

i promised myself

long ago i wouldn't lose

my magic or my dreams,

saw too many slip into

the skin of nothingness

and forget their own 

name.

~linda m. crate

every crow answered 

you tried too hard

to hold me,

instead i ran into 

the forest;

every crow answered

my prayers when i 

begged for friendship you

could not give me.

~linda m. crate 

through greasy air

AI wardens in

grumblecraft

~Richard Magahiz

like a holy flame writhed the king's fool 

~Richard Magahiz

by her iridium content

will you know

grief

~Richard Magahiz

trust the land snails with their dreams of speed

~Richard Magahiz

sunrise

my star parts

disappear

~Anne Fox

LOOK UP I yell

into the back of your phone case

~Jeanie Ngo

my mother faces

away from the window

trust

even after the war

~Jeanie Ngo

there is no pattern

to which of your string lights

are broken

~Jeanie Ngo

scientists are disappearing

that is not in the curriculum

I reach for a banned book

~Jeanie Ngo

400mg of empathy

enough to be present

and not enough to be paralyzed

~Jeanie Ngo

Afternoon of April 23, 2026

 

rain in the gutters

how a meaningless tune

became our anthem

~John Hawkhead

 

invasive species 

alien bodies trapped

by ice

~John Hawkhead

On Helping Two Old Men Navigate the Intake Machines at the Blood Work Place and Telling

the Phlebotomist about Philip K. Dick and the Movie Strange Days

scanners

what's next

thoughts

~dan smith

time zones

I run behind

yesterday

~Soumya Mukherjee

an ancient form

poets jump into the pond

frogs splash out

~Olinda Ninolakis

full moon 

a tulip thief makes a shortcut

through my backyard

~Maya Daneva

looking ill

on the outside—

old hospital

~Tony Williams

This year

New life

Death

Disappointment— Disillusionment

No footing

Shifting sands

All shall not be well

It only is.

~Ashley Lockemer

who's who?

the many double-Facebook people

behind the screen

~Oscar Luparia

crime scene piles of dismembered poems

~dan smith

                                              AN ENIGMA OF THE INFORMATION AGE

Record everything

then change and act as if you

always were this way.

~Paul Edward Costa

BEDTIME RITUAL REVIVAL

A taste of toothpaste, my pyjama fabric’s smell…unfamiliar sensations precede sleep.

So many nights blacked out in a row, redacted, never turning out the lights.

Anonymous heads nod in acknowledgement; they’ve also rediscovered wakeful evenings.

~Paul Edward Costa

SCHRÖDINGER WAITS DREAMING: POST-SCRIPT

I finally summoned the exorcist within me

who liberated my cardiovascular system’s

suspended centre

by standing against silence’s terror,

while repeatedly stating

The absence of deception compels you!

The absence of deception compels you!

~Paul Edward Costa

BLACK HOLE MOTOR

Do not lose faith that we will, one day,

learn how to harness the awesomely inert energy

of black holes light years away

to power our progress and functionality

since, after all, we have plenty of people operating in

and assisting society regularly

with massive, gaping chasms of silence

deep inside them. 

~Paul Edward Costa

Migraine

darkness flashes first

before it hurts

~Noah Berlatsky

you think you’re better than me lake superior

~thomas david

rubbing me 

the wrong way

tectonic plates

~thomas david

Morning of April 18, 2026

 Somewhere

$300 per night

we gather up

the toiletries

~Tom Bierovic

barking back

at the neighbor’s dog

lost in translation

~Tom Bierovic

Charlie Parker

the newborn

wiggles his toes

~Tom Bierovic

in Nashville...

the long eyelashes of my dead brother

and Johnny Cash

~Patrick Sweeney

the man with dirty fingernails giving us directions worth following

~Patrick Sweeney

the strange smells of other people's homes

~Patrick Sweeney

I'm the historian of what doesn't matter

~Patrick Sweeney

the inner clothesline is for the underwear

~Patrick Sweeney

apex predators whooping it up on the evening news

~Patrick Sweeney

Time

I'm running out of

~Noah Berlatsky

Breaktime

The world pauses.

The fingers break.

Built on precision.

Tested by time.

~T. Morrow

NASA planning

to do permanent settlement

in the moon...

since I don't own a house here

I wish to do one there

~Tejendra Sherchan

piercing the air 

a violin screams 

with grief

~Stephanie Zepherelli 

falling into 

morning coffee 

last night’s regrets

~Stephanie Zepherelli 

in prison

the invisible bars 

of expectation 

~Stephanie Zepherelli

https://forms.gle/4RLAYbLK9eR8xVFp9

Afternoon of April 15, 2026

 

Submission form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdDF3gcy35ARN51wcAUcTYf4FVOnLtC9xlAb-h67HxzJfXkUw/viewform?fbclid=IwY2xjawRNAitleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFuRmcyZ1hXRXRQTmlTZ1Zvc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHjnNzhn6d_-kG60fuOtT6K1ixGwWVte0w5FjC4gRoyGWRluQ-E173XrqJGa7_aem_nGOJDxM5qRxHL11RJSGkIg

                     

So long

So long as there are two humans, 

there will never be a ceasefire. 

~Partha Sarkar

yr gov't at work

UFOs and teleportation

waffle land of tarnished arches

~dan smith

govsplaining

answering our questions

before we ask

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

church bells

rung by 

a tornado

~John J. Dunphy

the politician's murder

upgraded to

an assassination

~John J. Dunphy

Paper mache worries

They tend to crumble

In the wind

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

brown mountain 

logs float

and no more

~Princes Rose Manuel 

guarding Earth

from asteroid hits

greatness of Jupiter

~Tejendra Sherchan

Landlord

The landlord said

the house was being sold

so moved from a room

with green mould

to one with grey mould

and another landlord.

~Paul Bavister

Choked on smoke

from the factory over the fence

that made plastic bottles

for pure water.

~Paul Bavister

we chimps

typed this

by chance

~Paul Bavister

you can't do the Watusi when the lumbago kicks in

~Patrick Sweeney

part of my practice is waiting for a voice from a cloud

~Patrick Sweeney

casing the joint...

the attention he never paid

in school

~Patrick Sweeney

an ant with wings...

he's learning how

to lip-sync

~Patrick Sweeney

(Fee to submit)

https://mainstreetmag.submittable.com/submit

Afternoon of April 11, 2026

Theme: Revenge, vendettas, grudges, feuds, rivalries, etc

Fiction: Up to 10,000 words (all genres)  /  Poetry: Up to 10 standard manuscript pages

The older you get

the more each new moment

recalls an old

humiliation.

~Noah Berlatsky

Spilling wine

On chocolate dirt

On murmuring roots

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

dewy morning

forgotten in the fairy ring

a plastic wand

~Gordon Gearhart

the dried old leaves fall

never fears their end knowing

their time will return

~Joanne Macias

waterbed

of pillow lava

extra firm

~Nicholas De Marino

string theory

strung between

modules

~Nicholas De Marino

аs a child 

no one knew 

the operating principles of military aviation

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

 

Kardashev Scale

have the UFOs

just been slumming

~dan smith

 

 

And  it utters vociferously

 

'I am at war..I cannot help killing innocent people...

now I have no time to think of the butterflies...

kindergarten...future's children park without fear...' 

It utters vociferously 

and throws stones at the flowers. 

~Partha Sarkar 

 

 

bioscience systemic sticker shock

 

bioscience systemic sticker shock – 

                                            why was I quarantined for years

~Scott C. Holstad

blind

 

an eye for a mouth

garbled trace of

humanity left in

traces at table

along with knife

the size of Judas.

~Scott C. Holstad

Duality

Of twilight crickets

Slow mandolins

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

Ravens song

Time goes by

Is it enough?

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Morning of April 10, 2026

 https://poetsagainstracism-usa.org/

temple bells chime

a monkey finds

lice in its ear

~Soumya Mukherjee

turning into a scarecrow wet owl

~Tejendra Sherchan

Vanilla ice coffee

You told me to enjoy birds

Simple, sweet

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

the gentle bleed

of daily news

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Flee or Flea

I dreamt of fleas and house cleaning again

The itchy creatures were reciting poetry

Haiku, tanka, couplets, quatrains, odes, 

Sonnets to the skin, in iambic pentameter 

Not stopping in their everlasting multiplication 

The spectre of a vet looms large and threatens

The existence of the wily indestructible flea

Oh I know my time is up I just want blood me

Vampires in films get much more screen time

But the Ctenocephalides felis hogs the Front Line

~Olinda Ninolakis

Lifeboat:

my fragile suppositions

tossed overboard

~Patrick Sweeney

eight-clawed sparrows on the iodine wire

~Patrick Sweeney

it'll take more than borax to kill the eggs of these fleas

~Patrick Sweeney

yes, I walked into telephone poles and stop signs as a kid...

early indications of something or other

~Patrick Sweeney

stepping on and stretching up

a wad of parking-lot gum, again

the heat

~Patrick Sweeney

astronauts escaping Earth's atmosphere

on a broken toilet

~Patrick Sweeney

chalked palms

a climbing rope reaches

the highest rafter

~Randy Brooks

 

out loud noun

their silent modifier

such a quiet verb

~Randy Brooks

 

 

dorm room poster

hippies hold hands

into the woods

~Randy Brooks

Charlotte

tethered by friendship to the end

Wilbur

~Jennifer Gurney

one way 

universe converses with me

through dreams

~Tejendra Sherchan

Evening of April 7, 2026

one dandelion
and no breeze
a possible future

~Marie C Lecrivain

the last black rhino

is gone

a slower

sunrise

today

~Marie C Lecrivain

up there

the grimacing chimera

of the church

là-haut

la chimère grimaçante

de l’église

~Marie Derley

limescale the thought of you e r o d i n g 

~Katherine E Winnick

The Transit of

Venus — a slowed-

 

down version of

Waiting for Godot.

~Mark Young

no more waiting for Godot

~Belinda Behne

The Age of Misrule every day is April Fools

~dan smith

that butterfly, that now

~dan smith

zero gravity

the hourglass sand

stops flowing

~John J. Dunphy

AARP asked 

why I cancelled auto pay

for my late aunt’s bill

~James Penha 

Lurching from one disaster 

to another, all

of his own making.
 

~Jeffrey Taylor

my father's dog tags

peace 

is a utopia

~M. R. Pelletier 

Old women selling eggs

The quiet wisdom

In everyday life

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

Insomnia

I cannot dream

so I write poetry

~Noah Berlatsky

surgery scar . . . 

the tideline's cursive

changing alphabets

~Nicholas Klacsanzky

milestones
the fabled end

of a rainbow

~Joanna Ashwell

surveying my teashop

the swallows won't return

to build their nests

~Tejendra Sherchan 

(fr)agile moon
(b)light

on my feet

~Joshua St. Claire

daffodils

Cadbury eggs

first signs of spring

~Jennifer Gurney

Finally we came to know    

Finally we came to know that 

we are naked.

Thank you, Mr. President.

~Partha Sarkar 

under lamplight

not confessing to anything

the unmoving fly

~Albert Schlaht

trick candles
on my birthday cake

I wasn’t born yesterday

~Herb Tate