Afternoon of March 12, 2026

 

https://writersalliance.org/bacopa-literary-review/

Monoglot

I don't know what you're talking about.

~Noah Berlatsky

A Different Kind of News

As the Aral Sea is replenished

As Nigeria eliminates malaria

As Chile puts an end to leprosy

As Croatia clears all landmines

As Libya gets rid of trachoma

Wild tigers are returning to Kazakhstan

~Olinda Ninolakis

praying for peace

marching for justice

I want my country back

~Jennifer Gurney

auctioning

off our souls

war

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

ten years old

Paris runway

to the Max

~Jennifer Gurney

Kissing to make up

Then going to bed

In separate rooms

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

The fence follows the road;

the road follows the fence;

cattle push through the fence

and cross the road

to follow the grass

greener on the other side.

~Diane Webster

Jet trails streak parallel

lines across the sky;

the grocery cart wheels

track water marks

from a mudpuddle

in the parking lot.

~Diane Webster

storm split mimosa

and nowhere anyone

to blame

~Patrick Sweeney

doodling in the profit margins

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

counting now on the kids who wouldn't stay in line



~Patrick Sweeney

 

Afternoon of March 10, 2026

 

syphilitic drainage

gumming up

the world order

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

springtime pollen

a whistleblower

weeps

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

blank poem

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

press blackout cutting the eyes from potatoes


~Patricia Hawkhead

ice cold moon her expired passport

~Barrie Levine

off with our heads March wind

~Cynthia Anderson

exponential

the expanding universe

of errands

~Cynthia Anderson

the hereafter

no more battles with

rats in the walls

~Cynthia Anderson

guacamole

letting the chips fall

where they may

~Cynthia Anderson

spring, eh

someone forgot to tell them

6 geese on the frozen lake

~Tom Blessing

shouting out

all the names with pauses

a vegetable vendor

~Tejendra Sherchan

our ships

yoked near light speed

satori at last

~dan smith

start shredding the news

then history

then people

~dan smith

bloody knees

he falls all over

his excuses

~Barrie Levine

the three dots

of Orion's Belt

things we're not

allowed to say

~Ian Willey

whip-poor-will things get worse

~Ian Willey

dirty martini

soft porn

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

glacial erratic governance

~Ian Willey

wondering

how the predators find

the taste of mantis

~Tejendra Sherchan

colonoscopy?

the editor cuts out

my semi-colons

~Randy Brooks

 

Afternoon of March 6, 2026

 

 

Blank Expression

~Nicholas De Marino

summer comes

she bares herself

to the scalpel

~Joshua St. Claire

 

telling me to shut up

about the damn moon

the moon

~Joshua St. Claire

cherry blossoms

my intern

bros me

~Joshua St. Claire

No doubt

No doubt,

there are two or three butterflies

but they are not sufficient to cause spring.

~Partha Sarkar

two junipers

dusted in fresh snow

my desires have become

much simpler

these days

~Tiffany Rindler

the way dawn breaks into italics

~Tiffany Rindler

moonbeams in a puddle of insomnia

~Joanna Ashwell

more like lavender in 6/8 time

~Tiffany Rindler

mud ooze the myriad shapes and colors of  America

~Bruce H. Feingold

a wayward swan

the insomnia of not knowing

what went wrong

~Bruce H. Feingold

not a

startlingly

original

poem

~Noah Berlatsky

Regime Range

Winners

mourn

fallen

bullets,

widowed

casings.

~Chad Parenteau

les façades ont

la couleur de la poussière –

après les bombes

the facades have

the colour of dust –

after the bomb

~Marie Derley

somewhere in the Midwest

she sneaks in

in the middle of the night

and swaps

all the regular ants

for fire ants

~Nicholas De Marino

Who keeps leaving me these notes

that point out the obvious?

~Nicholas De Marino

Transition
 

At the doorstep of death

Perhaps it is another dark Sun

To shine

White blood in the vein

Life awaits to leap ahead

For another journey.

~Pravat Kumar Padhy

breaking news:

the pledge

now propaganda

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

vernal equinox

upon the scales of justice

his bloody thumb

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

Don’t we just love wars


 
trenches cherried

with torn men
 

rifle mouths

in bloom
 

the shepherd’s flute —

snapped

under jackboots
 

no song left

as keepsake

~Saba Zahoor

war declared--

Jimmy the cat and I,

sniffing the air at the open window

~Patrick Sweeney

when I was in second grade

the whole school prayed

for the president

~Patrick Sweeney

will we soon be told when to applaud

and when to weep

~Patrick Sweeney

not only the nuthatch

knows the world

is upside down


~Belinda Behne

 

thousands of voices

sing in the streets

melting the ice


~Belinda Behne

flat-earthers

but what about

their EEGs?


~Oscar Luparia