Afternoon of May 28, 2026

 

https://sonicboomjournal.wixsite.com/sonicboom/contests

in an alternate universe

I imagine that this

is an alternate universe

~Noah Berlatsky

it began with the pearl-blue sheep's eye in biology

and the war we thought we had to fight

~Patrick Sweeney

preliminary findings that suggest 

he may have been radicalized by love

~Patrick Sweeney

half asleep

reciting a 2,000-year-old prayer

~Patrick Sweeney

New moon 

Unfinished but magical

I want to stay

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Crack of dawn

Crows peel off the road

Before us

~Tracey Foster

every window open

the rusted creak of my neighbor's

mailbox 

~Patrick Sweeney

his teachers said: he pays attention to all the wrong things

~Patrick Sweeney

secretly, he believed that every dandelion wish would come true

~Patrick Sweeney

that childhood light of a summer Saturday morning

when everyone was alive

~Patrick Sweeney

The Poet's Lament

no one is buying

my soul

~Noah Berlatsky

A Mature Poem

I want to be pissed off at the world,

but maybe I’m just pissed off at myself...

~Michael T. Smith

Tattered gloves in May

a waving shrub

hides the gardner 

~Mark Lawlor

outgrowing myself 

nothing left undone 

this time around

~Stephanie Zepherelli 

70 years old

slow dancing 

for the first time 

~Stephanie Zepherelli 

a disjointed life 

putting bones back 

where they belong 

~Stephanie Zepherelli 

walking me home 

a perfect fit 

enchanted shoes

~Stephanie Zepherelli 

And This

And this, all about the finished definition of round words, oval words, to words replying to other

words for words sake that must have notion of tomorrow finding Jackals in commas and hyenas n

the answers of today.

~John Vlachos

edge effect—

cougar tracks

between subdivisions

~Thomas L. Vaultonburg

church parking lot—

the hearse

beside the bounce house

~Thomas L. Vaultonburg

Just like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, 

we need to be aware 

of what is in plain sight - 

otherwise misguided trust

will see us devoured whole. 

~Joanne Macias

election gala

all

you can eat

~Soumya Mukherjee

the lake at dusk

someone needs to

answer that duck

~Ian Willey

echo chambers of Congress

~Ian Willey