Morning of October 31, 2025

pumpkins —

the world of slyboots

admist darkness

~Maria Cristina Pulvirenti

blue hour moon . . .

the ghost of you dancing

in the hallway

~Veronika Zora Novak

between

jade peaks . . .

a dragon's eye

~Veronika Zora Novak

playground mayhem everything we seesaw

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

counting candy

at the kitchen table—

hallotweens


~Julie Bloss Kelsey

moving day—

the rice cooker 

leaves for college

~Julie Bloss Kelsey

Suddenly

Suddenly all strangers seem to be known to me.

~Partha Sarkar

A human face

A human face tells different fairy tales without conclusion.

~Partha Sarkar

link death

number one cause

is

~Noah Berlatsky

a flower is only friends with its own roots

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

gazing at scenic mountain views a bear

~Tejendra Sherchan

indeterminate numbers

and empty bellies

~Patrick Sweeney

freed from the constraints of reason

inviting daily

hybrid disasters
 

~Patrick Sweeney

all day, what's wrong with the country

all night, what's wrong with me

~Patrick Sweeney

he hoped there would be ravens in the tall grasses of heaven

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

Trick or Treat

I fear

the worst

~Helen Buckingham

Afternoon of October 29, 2025

 

Work Shirt

~dan smith

daylight savings not FDIC insured may lose value

~Cynthia Anderson

dry bones a tumbleweed at the door

~Cynthia Anderson

proving I’m not a bot to a bot

~Mark Gilbert

an insistent pleading just to see what is already plain to see

~Mark Gilbert

the crackle of needle stuck in the groove

~Mark Gilbert

raid

man strikes

an ICE agent

with his

white cane

~John J. Dunphy

back to standard time

to reschedule the rooster

and even the sheep


~Oscar Luparia

electrical blackout

not a big deal

at the Halloween party


~Oscar Luparia

pumpkin yarn

the eyes aglow

with mischief

~Joanna Ashwell

this urge

to call you again . . .

thawing water pipes

~Gordon Gearhart

passing through

the shrunken head exhibit

dead snapdragons

~Gordon Gearhart

barren shelves

at the food pantry

hunger moon

~Gordon Gearhart

this reluctance to be photographed on the cell phone Luna

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

a suffering rooted in innocence OCD

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

another year without you november rain


~Mona Bedi

drops of rain on bent wires this grief


~Mona Bedi

there will be

goodbyes to you

the rest of my life

~Jennifer Gurney

more pieces of the puzzle

missing every day

mom’s dementia

~Belinda Behne

across the world

a sign of respect

frogs

~Jennifer Gurney

scratched and bleeding

~dan smith

Afternoon of October 26, 2025

dressing up as an upcoming birthday to scare an existential crisis out of myself

~Martina Matijević

his ego built brick by brick

~Bipasha Majumder (De)

 

RETURN OF THE MEASLES?

ten fleas leap from the bed

~Pris Campbell

my body's atoms billions of years old

~Tejendra Sherchan

afternoon chat

in front of the fireplace –

poison tea

~Nicoletta Ignatti

a grave miss stake

confusing left and right

~dan smith

I imagine

turning the Bailong Elevator

into a cosmic one

~Tejendra Sherhan

what fun

to lose myself

in disarray

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

softest breeze

i wish you had been

my first husband

~Tiffany Rindler

his focus was entirely on the 'why' nobody bothered

to shoo the fly from the gorgonzola

~Patrick Sweeney

expect real-time shortages of tear gas and concertina wire

~Patrick Sweeney

the boy with freckles wants to know why

we ruined the world

~Patrick Sweeney

whispering the names of pallbearers in the green kitchen

~Patrick Sweeney

writing in my notebook is making everyone nervous

~Patrick Sweeney

Post Mortem: the last person he googled was himself

~Patrick Sweeney

clink of cans

nestling into place

pantry-geist

~Nicholas De Marino

 

a small boy

searches the field for it

the Great Pumpkin

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

four street lamps –

my shadows

all the same

~Antonio Mangiameli

 

“A nation is made of borders!”

No.

Of neighbors.

~Noah Berlatsky

daring thoughts

how we’re naked

beneath our clothes

~Peter Jastermsky