Afternoon of October 30, 2026

 

nuclear option

the country

a button away

~Peter Jastermsky

Feeling a rupture, dismissed as an illusion suddenly knowing a louder cacophony of silence realizing itself and managing the psyche in a shopping bag.
 
~John Vlachos

 

 

 

 

nothing matters till it does hospice moon

~Mona Bedi 

 

like a trolling stoner smoking moon

~dan smith

spoils 
of the moon
just beneath

~Roberta Beach Jacobson 

    

sunlight on the bay seems like nothing’s wrong 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

 

the wind leaves no letters

~Manasa Reddy

 

the splatter of her signature her hoops and loops

~Mark Gilbert

 

 

 

Isolation obviates
Solidarity
By suppressive prolepsis.

~Frank Conahan

 

 

writing war poems

for others

like it’s 1984

                                                                        ~Mark Gilbert

 

 

 

From an Akkadian Fragment

this bread for us is bitter

.....  ...... spiral staircase [ ? ] ..... difficult

to descend .........  .... almost impossible

...   ..  to ascend

this sun bleeds us ..... .. .....

knowledge ...  .....   ... [ untranslatable ]

......  ..... is interbred ....  .......

baked in the clay .......    ...... scribes 

dream the far ..... .... ....... horizons

our ..... .. .. ......... distant star       

~dan smith

 

 

seed, gourd, and mulch
ghosts of Halloween past
present and future

~Nicholas De Marino

 

coding me from afar
dead computer language

~Roberta Beach Jacobson 

 

 

papa don’t preach

riot     us

capi   toll

for 

whom

the 

bell

~Michael Harrington

 

Afternoon of October 26, 2026

  

  

 

murder mischief crows stain the trees black 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

 

house of cards someone used Velcro

~Cynthia Anderson

 

border crossing no one deserves this

~Cynthia Anderson

 

lukewarm coffee illusion of moonlight moving through windows

~Sarah Mahina Calvello  

giving the hairy eyeball wary coyote

~Cynthia Anderson 

 

 

the empty sockets
behind the bisque face—
closed lips scream

~Patricia Carragon

 

perfect teeth

on the dentist's 

jack o'lantern

~John J. Dunphy

 

 

discarded pumpkin an audience of squirrels

~Roberta Beach Jacobson 

 

 

A self-identifying Leonard Cohen fan—talked about the woman swallowed by the sea

~Patrick Sweeney

They only heard the words he mispronounced

~Patrick Sweeney

The security guard is yawning and checking his watch—I've already drawn up my legs from the crime scene

~Patrick Sweeney

autumn equinox

a spider’s web

in the weaver’s loom

~Alvin B. Cruz

 

 

 

autumn leaves

his hospice bracelet

loosens

~Alvin B. Cruz

 

 

If only their nonsense was their onlyness, a little bit of indescribable stupidity that persuades fools and idiots, that trips over mistakes and redundant meanings.

~John Vlachos

 

Absence of individualism is retrofitted, interrupted, talking nonsense as if it were an anthem for anteaters and tortoises. 

~John Vlachos

 

political pumpkins the stink

~Roberta Beach Jacobson 

 

 

glass flowers under sparse moonlight all these years wasted

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

 

 

Haikuniverse wants your Halloween poems now!

http://haikuniverse.com/halloween-project-call-for-submissions/ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five Fleas Merch

 

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

Afternoon of October 24, 2026

 

 

 

yoyo loach

the surface level 

is inconsequential 

~Jerome Berglund

Contrast

 

 

the air in Italy

    is good

             what is it

                  the difference

     other than

      I am in a new

  place in my life

      since

           does it matter

         I am in a new place

~James Croal Jackson

 

 

chimp

in the atrium 

just a phase 

~Jerome Berglund

hay bale 

lest I 

be judged 

~Jerome Berglund

 

 

 

Awry (From Levels of Resistance)

Spring is coming soon,
yet flowers have been blooming
             prematurely
while it’s still mid-winter,
as confused Nature
tries to come to terms
with climate change,
a disruptive force
that throws out of sync
the normal growing cycle.

~Gary Beck 

 

turn by turn

the strays pee

on a sidewalk

~Tejendra Sherchan 

gavotte master     wearing new smartshoes

~Richard Magahiz

viper tongues  

split backbones adorn  

the living room
  

~Richard Magahiz

Long dark age

of burning

the zero forgotten

~Richard Magahiz

 

 

so this  

is infinity  

the smoke and the vibes

~Richard Magahiz

misery O yes 

and yet

hot buttered  pancakes  

~Richard Magahiz

here every proton rings like a gong

 

~Richard Magahiz

Blue Boredom

 

 

blue wall triangle apex

behind tall weeds golden

sunflowers heart green

snake to the boardroom

half in half out half blue

half void no sun no blue

the sky

~James Croal Jackson

Self-Criticism

 

One day you will write your last good poem.

Maybe it is today.

Maybe it was the one you wrote yesterday,

before this one.

 

A white, warm cat sits on your chest

and you cannot write anymore.

~Noah Berlatsky

Animal Crossing
 

 

dinosaur fossils  star shapes  in earth

shards of  a manila clam along   the side of

bed  dancing   in someone’s house   of forest

you   play flute I   bang boards   call them

drums   an island in   who-knows-what-ocean

I moved to   my own far away    from

everyone   close to you

~James Croal Jackson

in my moods overconfidence strikes again 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

witchy crescent moon confluence and consequence

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

How Can I Know Myself?

 

 

The tree shadows

expand beyond

Mount Id

 

as I forever

change.

 

I head aimless

on shifting ice

 

and the cold

rollicking sea

is always me.

~James Croal Jackson

 

 

 

still the perfectionist — 

a ghost tweaks

his roadside memorial

~John J. Dunphy

spectral dog

now fetching

one of his own bones
 

~John J. Dunphy