Afternoon of July 6, 2026

    

The Wonderful Sentence came from the never-happen house, the almost 

glance, the experimenting smile that won’t let go, even if it hurts and 

wounds the poem, hardly written a moment ago.

~John Vlachos

mushrooms

moonlit incantations

within the rain

~Joanna Ashwell

sunrise 

crickets continue singing 

in the cornfield 

~Tejendra Sherchan 

class reunion

everyone

sends their clone

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

dust under the bed

transition from state |Present

to state |Absent

I lie down on the bed

with the cat I don't have

~Marie Derley

Retribution

When God

hears her

ask why

horn of

plenty is

so loud.

~Chad Parenteau

You know you are a real poet

when you would rather pay bills

than write a poem.

~Noah Berlatsky

Cousin Papamanolis

Has seventy dogs (it is said)

And cats too numerous to count

He's a beekeeper and lives alone

Save for all the animals

Cousin Papamanolis used to be a priest

His gentle smile and weather beaten face

Bare witness to no fall from grace

He's a friend and distant relative

In all ways he is superlative

~Olinda Ninolakis

Street strawberries 

Wrong moment, wrong road

Writing your path 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

Chairs 

Chairs stacked. 

Sitting people, a makeshift person of illusions;

a beside you friend dressed in a remarkable imagination; 

so much passion in so little living doesn’t of what matters should in

the beside, should in the you to be supposing chairs have shadows. 

~John Vlachos

complaint box

my government receives

41,000

~Tejendra Sherchan

in the shower me and the spider

~Bernadette O'Reilly  

salad greens

accidentally eating

my pet ant

~Ruth Holzer

a long stretch

with nothing happening

my plane at the gate

~Ruth Holzer

anger management--

circling the bully 

a whisper of butterflies 

~Wendy Cobourne

Second Amendment vs. FIFA



A well regulated Cup, being necessary to the security of a sports tyrant,

the right of the people to keep and bear Baloguns, shall not be infringed.


~ Nicholas De Marino

back in my skin every grain of sand an earthquake

~Richard Magahiz

the age of the toothless sightless mouth

~Richard Magahiz