Afternoon of June 23, 2026

Before the Art
 

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

 

The Devil

Nipping

at my heels

as I race

up the stairs . . .

He stops

at the single

upside-down

baluster

~Kimberly Kuchar

moth

fights to escape a cobweb

earthquake

~Tejendra Sherchan 

Rag doll in the attic

staring into space.

Tornado

~Jeffrey L. Taylor

Under one umbrella

both of us

get half wet.

~Jeffrey L. Taylor

The Critic

Pay me and I will evaluate

the art you love. It isn’t great.

~Noah Berlatsky

for one day

we saw and remembered

presidential

~Jennifer Gurney

words are spells 

even mermaids

drown,

words are spells;

you are meant to 

create not destroy:

both worlds and

people.

~linda m. crate 

French onion soup

the long stretch

of a rendezvous

~Randy Brooks

In The Cosmic Nursery

time stretches

voids yawn

it's a gas, man

~dan smith

house

with barbed wire fence

a dead tree inside 

~Tejendra Sherchan

after the second beyond  a wait

~Vijay Prasad

stagnant pool all the reasons why we parted

~Neena Singh

 

 

Five Fleas Swag

https://www.zazzle.com/store/five_fleas

Afternoon of June 18, 2026

 

 

common assault and battery life 

~John Hawkhead

 

 

 

memorandum of understanding nothing 

~John Hawkhead

M

You sleep around my sleep

because you dream of me

while I dream of you or

because the other way around or

because you went to sleep first

and woke up later.

~Noah Berlatsky

old graveyard 

something sprouts  

beneath the oaks 

~Deborah Karl-Brandt

sea waves

lap the rocky cliffs

and rebound...

my heart finds its way

to AI love

~Tejendra Sherchan

she told me she saw

faces in the rock, but

she didn’t know if

they saw her

~Tom Blessing

strangled my voice out back

at last it’s not me

talking

~Noah Berlatsky

Secretive 

Ready stretch the tally of the years, ready beckon and tantalize, ready buy with an open 

heart, a box to conceal, make or break the truth on the table when your nerves are shot 

and moments are walking with crutches.

~John Vlachos

Anxiety of Influence

 

Pound was a fascist ass;

Shelley a philandering jerk.

Yeats was a weird misogynist.

Ted Hughes was even worse.

 

Poe was racist. Stevens too.

Great poets white, male and dead—

away with them! I will live

and write doggerel instead.

~Noah Berlatsky

feeling invisible

every piece of mail in my box

not for me

~Jennifer Gurney

off grid

a snail goes

it's own way

~Melissa Dennison

the seeker of the origins of the Universe,

finished third on Jeopardy

~Patrick Sweeney

because they let him take long lunches

he never calls in sick at the drone factory

~Patrick Sweeney

studying the dorsal wing of a fly

he said: 'you always knew how to have fun'

~Patrick Sweeney

In  a  Zen Garden

The gnomes 

all seem to dance.

I become a prayer.

The world a chalice.

The wounded sky

grows faint and Earth

but shadow of a scar.

~dan smith

cherry blossom

fooling

nobody


~Stephen Toft

 

garden buddha

has moss

for hair

~Stephen Toft

Tiredness 

Tiredness has no last chapter. 

~Partha Sarkar

 

Afternoon of June 14, 2026

 

 

Kitchen Wink

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

homeless shelter

a round of applause for

the class valedictorian 

~John J. Dunphy 

 

from unhoused

to housed

in an ICE detention center

~John J. Dunphy

 

Lenin

if you put him in 

a cowboy hat 

~Jerome Berglund

local law enforcement 

investigating 

themselves 

~Jerome Berglund

 

meddlesome 

good representation 

despite,

never ever 

because of

~Jerome Berglund

They say 

only the meek

surrender;

but, have you

ever heard

the roar

of a waterfall?

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

in lieu of ellipses and em-dashes a squiggly line 

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

dew-warped 

the three-liner

left out overnight

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

white worm . . . 

well damn me 

for an amateur 

been too focused 

on secular conspiring

~Jerome Berglund

changing the system 

or endorsing it 

appendicitis 

~Jerome Berglund

thoughts and prayers

they would have us 

second guess them

~Jerome Berglund

 

under the nails —

a line

that won’t print


~Jacek Margolak

 

broken press —

a fingerprint

in the margin


~Jacek Margolak

 

 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScZSCllYsrL3fgiYbo-mGdRgpemwOxwv3iMZBdZEwfqKN4p8Q/viewform?pli=1

Afternoon of June 12, 2026

 

bus stop

rain chooses

one shoulder


~Elliot Diamond

unsubscribe and they send one more

~David Liu

single-cell organism // all of us


~Nicholas De Marino

 

quiet pond, a frog breaks the moon.

~Manasa Reddy Chichili

 

nowhere to go orphan moon

~Mona Bedi

love is a room with plastic flowers

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

the revolution will not be televised

but it will be filmed and uploaded

to Facebook

~Jennifer Gurney

 

Morning of June 8, 2026

  

Daredevil

#92

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

objects

in the bathroom mirror

much closer

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

 

Texas summer 

lizard people take off 

their masks 

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

belligerent planet—

a praying mantis devours

the lizard

~Tejendra Sherchan

razor’s edge

a stunning view 

of the afterlife

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

crisp crumbs

her midnight quest

for meaning

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

warfare

a repair ticket 

on the Doomsday Clock

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

shadows in the valley the phenomenology of grief

~John Pappas

as yellow as never the bone ache of silence

~John Pappas

party games

the swish and sway

of a housefly

~Joanna Ashwell

zodiac club

locking horns

with a ram

~Joanna Ashwell

their prayers

evaporate in the air

Greek mountain

~Marie Derley

old dock

she whispers 

in the waves

~Tucker Poikonen

  

 

 

Morning of June 4, 2026

 

And?

~dan smith 

war games

the AI 

is our Captain 

~M. R. Pelletier 

away from home

can I find different poetry?

alas, I carry the same sack

~Noah Berlatsky

Now that the poetry

reading is over, I can

go & get a haircut.

~Mark Young

many promises broken yet we vote

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

A person gets up early

to cast a vote

then has to return to bed

to have a good day. 

~Partha Sarkar

Turntable jazz

Wrapping around the night 

Satin silk

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

silence I bite my mother tongue

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

 

Afternoon of June 2, 2026

 

Open through June: Half Day Moon Journal

https://www.josephsalvatoreaversano.com/hdmj-submission-guidelines

 

 

Big Bang Theory:

popcorn blows the lid

off the pot

~Barrie Levine

justice just us

~John J. Dunphy

unpredictable

hopping

history

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

          A

JUST    MOUNTAIN

This is

This is not

This is not a

This is not a mole

This is not a molehill

~Peter Jastermsky

sting operation

the mosquitoes

act with impunity


~Bonnie J. Scherer

pummeled by wind-borne objects

I ride the all-weather deck

to kingdom come


~Bonnie J. Scherer

too tired

to hate you

hoverfly

~Joshua St. Claire

my iPhone suggests

a moon emoji

summer solstice

~Joshua St. Claire

 

 

quantum effects become significant boardroom


~Joshua St. Claire

 

behind the plate glass window verbless world


~Joshua St. Claire

all that remains of somewhere contrails

~Joshua St. Claire

murky dusk the raven tickling the demons within 

~Hifsa Ashraf  

night terror the strobe lights puzzling my aura 

~Hifsa Ashraf

winter coughs spreading urban foxes 

~John Hawkhead

 

Ψ crows’ feet casting runes in snow Ψ   

~John Hawkhead

paper scraps—

one corner earmarked

~Elliot Diamond

banana, weep --

you, the work

of transcendence

~Richard Magahiz 

feather 

over a gutter stream 

trying to keep dry

~Tejendra Sherchan 

 

 

 

Open for submissions this month: Prune Juice

https://prunejuicesenryu.com/submissions/

Open all of June: Kokako Journal

https://kokako10.wordpress.com/submissions/

 

that feeling

in the first part of a good book

when the characters become your friends

~Jennifer Gurney

light but love revealed

darkness but love lost

constant birth and death

a universe

~dan smith

The Memory of Africa 

Baobab trees

on the veld - the memory 

of Africa 

elephants' 

encyclopedic 

memories 

linking trunks 

bridging the divide

we're all Africans

~Olinda Ninolakis

Dallas, Texas

a busy avenue…

the colorblind

tarantula

does not cross at the light

~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky

after that bit about the Equator and the imaginary line 

I figured the rest was hooey, too

~Patrick Sweeney

please tell me you're not still searching for Shambala

~Patrick Sweeney

the nature poet goes to the edge of the porch

and back again

~Patrick Sweeney

she wasn't the first person to suggest I put things in alphabetical order

~Patrick Sweeney

 

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

 

 

 

Open for submissions: Haiku Girl Summer

https://www.haikugirlsummer.com/submission-information/