Afternoon of September 7, 2024

Critique

I don’t think you should end a poem with

“My life has changed.”

~Noah Berlatsky

You don’t think about what you say.

I don’t say what I think.

The perfect marriage.

~Nolcha Fox

purple flowers

all over a pine forest

oblivious wife

~Tejendra Sherchan

the dead are still here

plants overwatered, underwatered, forgotten

~Steve Van Allen

Give light, Sun

What to do? How to walk steadily?

Do not know the blunt skeletons

And very often get morbid.

I come across them and get sad

But I do not put forward my hand

Rather ask the Sun to come out of the clouds

And give them light so that

They can stand erect and walk.

~Partha Sarkar

The great struggle of writing

is to see the truth

in your bank account.

~Noah Berlatsky

The Net Equivalent

of standing

in the kitchen

wondering why

u walked

in there

is going to Google

but forgetting

what you were

planning to search for

~Keith Snow

falling in love with the transplant surgeon

she whispers, "take my hand"

~Morgan Ellington

night duty

the hushed whisper

from behind

~Bidyut Prabha Gantayat

stuck in traffic

a billboard promises

relief

~Nalini Shetty

autocorrect

my opinion reshaped

without consent

~Nalini Shetty

two-factor authentication

proving

I still exist

~Nalini Shetty

dystopian dreams—

the future

they warned us about

~Nalini Shetty

mono no aware

new moon

or noon awe

no more now

~Scott F. Parker

university

yes

uni

verse

i yes

visit

yes

~Scott F. Parker

unsolicited advice to self

pay attention

to what you're paying attention

to

~Scott F. Parker

 

Buy our merch:

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

Morning of September 3, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s in the Bones

~Kelly Moyer

Photos available here

do not see me…

I am the face

of undecided

I have not picked

my story

—yet

~Sharon Ferrante

the poetry

of the lake

each breath

strikes the shore

alone

i paint

on empty rice paper

kilroy on a wall

feeling poetic

i slide into a chair

and start snoring

~Mike Rehling

collateral damage a spirit snake swallows its tail

~John Hawkhead

war footing the final bill

~John Hawkhead

crunch time cicadas taste like shrimp

~Sharon Ferrante

24 hour rolling news

I teach myself to see

things that aren’t there

~John Hawkhead

 

types of North Woods trees: deciduous, conifer, Big Foot

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

What I've learned

Summer flies are assholes

Fighting in the air

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Labor Day

our union local president

goes into labor

~John J. Dunphy

 

only child

I am

the sibling

of myself

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

causation/correlation

i flip a coin

in the name of science

~Mike Rehling

I’ve decided

tonight

shall be simple

I’ll visit

the ocean

scream at it

~Sharon Ferrante

 

 

Morning of August 30, 2024

 

Naturally

~Kelly Moyer

Photos available here

bark hole —

safeguarding

our secrets

~Daipayan Nair

cosmic mandala

surrounded by the living

dead

~Deborah Karl-Brandt

Insomnia

You get so much done

when you’re dead.

~Noah Berlatsky

solitude

unasked for, unwanted

white noise of grief

~Jennifer Gurney

curtain call

the bees prepare

for their final encore

~Melissa Dennison

autumn wind here we go again

~Keith Evetts

how the months fly by vacuum cleaning

~Keith Evetts

barcode yeti calder’s batmobile

~J. D. Nelson

needles to say s

~J. D. Nelson

neighbour of nothing I keep it

~J. D. Nelson

cryptocurrency the look on grandma's face

~Keith Evetts

Say we’ll go to the ocean

then I’ll come

That is, if we go to the ocean.

~Wenyi Xiao

with a flu

she played the flute

a little cute,

a little coo.

~Marcus Ten Low

soon, the moon,

it will begone.

duck.

~Marcus Ten Low

The sea was supposed to give me revelations.

I listened and listened

it had the sound of an empty shell.

~Wenyi Xiao

sad and lonely haikuist's whoopee cushion

~Keith Evetts

 

 

Afternoon of August 27, 2024

when the Milky Way Galaxy was above and below the chained dipper

~Patrick Sweeney

the high anatomy of chewing vegetable roots and gazing at stars

~Patrick Sweeney

out

of

time

&

hyper

space

earth

no

longer

earth

~Randy Brooks

Hang On!

Moon age

day dreamer.

~Keith Snow

Earth again at last

herds of bison keep

radio silence

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

a snake vanishes—

gravity pulls it down

into the black hole

~Suraj Nanu

the cake exploded

the guest of honor briefly

surprised by the claws

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

zydeco deathmatch

another busker thrown

to the gators

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

"how could they be so dumb?"

child asks his parents

after watching historical reenactors

depict racism

~John J. Dunphy

monsoon at the end...

ants trailing thins out

in my bathroom

~Tejendra Sherchan

pest control

she brooms the salesman

off the porch

~Randy Brooks

I heard that there was a paradise.

But we wouldn't have it anymore.

Some idiot would have lost it.

~Marie Derley

a man’s shadow...

shrinks and vanishes

as he leaves the light

~Tejendra Sherchan

The blunt skeletons in sharp competition

The cloudy morning.

The three-wheelers are rushing breathlessly

To catch more passengers.

I watch and watch day by day

The blunt skeletons in sharp competition

And correct a geography lesson-

Every day the sun rises in the west.

~Partha Sarkar

buttonholing perfect strangers with observational irrelevancies

~Patrick Sweeney

we had tsetse flies and H-bombs when I was your age

~Patrick Sweeney

in her quiet way, she answered all my Chinese destinies

~Patrick Sweeney

already dropped

so many shoes

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

active crime scene crumbs of the cupcake lady

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Haiku Dilemma

I must rearrange

the poetry books. Alas,

I’m not ready yet.

~Noah Berlatsky

Mahout

just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike

the yellow straw

~Patrick Sweeney

father said to son while counting the change in his pocket:

please don't breathe

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Pate Journal)

although asphyxiation was improbable,

a full congregation

simultaneously exhaling

~Patrick Sweeney

 

Afternoon of August 24, 2024

Ozone

~Kelly Moyer

Photography available here

I Am Old

Yet though the miracle

of imposter syndrome

eternally young.

~Noah Berlatsky

Ignorance Together

I am glad to have been married

twenty-four years

to someone

who can’t remember

our anniversary either.

~Noah Berlatsky

leftover bay leaf

on my meal plate...

I eat only its scent

~Tejendra Sherchan

Irene

to the untrained eye

she may appear average

but Irene

hides a box of 8-tracks

in the attic

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

housed in thrift store basement secondhand allegations

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Critique of Pure Raisin

bran

baby

bran

~dan smith

condemned house

its lead-based paint warning

written in pencil

~John J. Dunphy

shuttered nuclear power plant

its grounds aglow

with fireflies

~John J. Dunphy

gaps in

papyrus

rolls

endless space

for genius

~Bob Carlton

clearing sky

the crunch of snails

underfoot

~Bob Carlton

Morning of August 21, 2024

OG

~Kelly Moyer

Photography available here

the idol's lips move

the mob pummeled

with pink noise

~Richard Magahiz

fifty fathoms down

signatures in

triplicate

~Richard Magahiz

creeping dust children

their eyelashes

needle-sharp

~Richard Magahiz

To tea

Or not to tea

That is the question

~Susan L. Pope

loggerhead

so many versions

of king lear

~Jerome Berglund

analysis: the architect has an edifice complex

~dan smith

while waiting

for the brake job my headache

gets run over

~Robert Epstein

Sunday laundry

round & round

the argument goes

~Robert Epstein

summer dying I become shale

~Joshua St. Claire

now I have it

now I don't

my death poem

~Robert Epstein

Jane ear

Jane hare

Jane heir

~Jerome Berglund

as I make coffee

you swirl amongst my thoughts

the scent of hazelnut

~Jennifer Gurney

we

are

not

going

back

~Jennifer Gurney

After the heinous crime

'Dead population is shouting for justice...'

'Let them do so.'

'They are demanding investigation'

'Let them do so. One day all crime will be hushed up.

One day the dead population will be much more dead.

Then I will allow them to slogan "Long Live revolution '

~Partha Sarkar

rain arrow hang the jury

~Jerome Berglund

The riot

Trapped my soul

In riot.

Is my neighbour

Enemy?

~Partha Sarkar

Labor Day parade

unionized strippers march

in their work clothes

~John J. Dunphy

root vegetable

if a pill could alleviate

poverty

~Jerome Berglund

to your third eye

touch the Pole Star

act quite human

~Richard Magahiz

western civilization

a mass-produced 1000-piece puzzle

of Starry Night

~Joshua St. Claire

black eye

of the two-stripe grasshopper

telescope to a moon

~Elliot Diamond

 

grunge cosmos —

stardust

on my lips

~Aly Droyd