Afternoon of October 2, 2026

 

 

in this world of Darwin’s theory an ice flower 

~Arvinder Kaur

She didn't know she was writing a masterpiece—

only sharing something she couldn't keep to herself

~Patrick Sweeney

lazy river, the velvety touch of a name brand paper towel

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

 

This city runs on iced coffee and raw ambition 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

His incessant note taking was making the guests nervous

~Patrick Sweeney

The windings to and fro I no longer touch the Earth with my feet 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Entering the forest of good listeners

~Patrick Sweeney

 

no pee section in a pool if politics cared about this

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

The town's under water

and the yellow-billed loon has zero followers

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

new smells and colors coffee in a storm breaking through silence 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Occluded front—meeting the local meteorologist at the post office

~Patrick Sweeney

The silence in the house of no sugar bowl 

~Patrick Sweeney

 

status wars a relationship in remission 

~Arvinder Kaur

He's stuck on the third wish

~Patrick Sweeney

ataraxia

until a fly
finds my nose

~Arvinder Kaur

everyone says
I'll never forget

so & so or such & such

but they do

till the only thing

they can't forget

is how much 

they keep forgetting 

~dan smith

long-married couple

now separated at

the homeless shelter

~John J. Dunphy

cliff's edge
we cinch our hoods
against the yodel of rain

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

 

land snails
accelerating into the curve
of her long bones

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

 

mother tongue
the apple
of her oyster fork

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

 

 

bubbling up
from the tine marks
dissent

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

No!

Sitting in the studio,

I am a model

for a surrealist painter;

apple branches grow from my eyes,

a snake lies beneath my feet,

mushrooms sprout from the snow.

I am fleeing--

enough of war.

~Anica Marcelic

 

 

 

Where to Submit Your Creative Works This Month

 

Prune Juice Journal (theme of language)

Trash Panda (Anthropocene)

Only Human Senryu 

Pulse (medical)

Post-Ku