Afternoon of April 15, 2026

 

                       

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

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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