Morning of October 15, 2025

Crime Scene

Clay Head ~Alf B. Meier & Photo ~Roberta Beach Jacobson

In the sky without a ladder

~Nicoletta Ignatti

photographer

captures a field of daisies

reflected

in the eyes of

a jumping spider

~Tejendra Sherchan

I fight

losing battles against

the cockroaches

~Tejendra Sherchan

year’s end

the low drone

of bone cold


~John Pappas

bare branches forgetting the names of

~John Pappas

morning coffee

I gas up

the hearse

~John Pappas

moonset the hollow of bird bones

~John Pappas

Perpetual Mediocrity

aging ex-beauty queens with 

facemask perma-grooves

digging deep into ReeL Parisian 

Louis Vuitton while the 

plain janes look on sporting 

perpetually tormented 

expressions so very twisted 

by all they’ll never have/be.

~Scott Holstad

Gag Realz

playing repeating records --

dancing terror tunes -- 

ain’t been more irrelevant --

Kakfa never saw AI coming –

he'd have punted Josephine //

~Scott Holstad

Rocketing

Camelback whispers 

warnings of dried heat 

exhaustion at 12:30 am, 

desert blooming where 

skying palms reign

and cacti lie waiting

~Scott Holstad

a perfect time of the season

for the return of The Zombies

~Patrick Sweeney

a new tattoo

everyone reading

her shoulder

~Patrick Sweeney

every kid in the class was a haiku master

~Patrick Sweeney

juror number 8 has another question

~Patrick Sweeney

she's the mathematician

who refused to carry

the zero

~Patrick Sweeney

far from the jaguar dream

wild men speak to me on the street

~Patrick Sweeney

birdcage bars

a trapped hummingbird

wearing gang-red

~Richard L. Matta

Peace Photography

no need to check the levels

we are all one light

step out of the shadows

whirl around the sun

dance with the unity

every particle

every wave

speaks I AM

says step out

and dance

~dan smith

On the Memory of Mr. Gibson Signing His Album Cover

the stoned idleness

fills La Cave

to far reaches of empty mind

Bob Gibson's ringing guitar

a distant temple bell

pealing away the mist of time

~dan smith

near-death experience

I borrow a life

from my cat

~thomas david

zoom meeting

even the camera

struggles to focus

~thomas david

haiku bingo

all I need

is cicada

~thomas david

mating for life the salt and pepper shakers

~thomas david

across the river

across memories

the old cottage

still stands

~Nisha Raviprasad

paunch of 

a pauper....

paucity of 

patty

pay dirt.

~Partha Sarkar

Dead

Does the dead remain lifelong dead?


~Partha Sarkar

cherry blossoms

mysterious as before

the old sewing machine

~Boryana Boteva

Innovation in the arts is mostly marketing.

This is a new idea.

Please share.

~Noah Berlatsky

 

 

New Journal: smols

https://smolspoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

Evening of October 10, 2025

 

Cathedral of the In-Between

~dan smith

Oak trees know all about asphyxia but nothing about death

Flowers know all about withering but nothing about resurrection

The sun knows all about warmth but nothing about love

The moon knows all about night but nothing about passion

And I leave again knowing nothing as alone as at birth

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

During the plague

Еveryone writes poetry

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

No MFA

 

I have never taught a poetry class.

I tried to be a poetry teacher but I failed.

I am still failing.

There is nothing to learn here.

~Noah Berlatsky

cypress tree knees

a riderless kayak

knocks

~Randy Brooks

doing things together

fitted sheets

don’t

~Randy Brooks

an inheritance of flowers

the neighbor’s wife

revives him

~Randy Brooks

human bean

the bent reflection of ICE

on Michigan Avenue

~Randy Brooks

 

training grounds

make my heart sink

as they become killing fields

~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky

farm field

ICE agents joke about

harvesting illegals

~John J. Dunphy

Captain Vibrato

You sailed on ships of light

out beyond our wisps of stars.

Sent us postcards

filled with trembling trees

and all your mad fragility

that pled: wish you were here.

They were postmarked Immortality.

~dan smith

You

fall out

and crawl over

and climb up

into you.

~Noah Berlatsky

deli fresh    pâté de foie humain

~Richard Magahiz

 

it is all rotten

but some of it

wears perfume

~Richard Magahiz

as flesh and metal try to occupy a single point

~Richard Magahiz

nobody wants a lecture on

the distance between oxygen molecules

at high altitude

~Patrick Sweeney

the Yang side of the man

who doesn't want to talk about it

~Patrick Sweeney

the singer talked about the missing verse

in the song he was about to sing

~Patrick Sweeney

he used to say 'it will all go on the next day without me' and it did

~Patrick Sweeney

militarization...

tell me again,

how does a maple leaf ignite

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

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

Afternoon of October 7, 2025

 

naps are good but then

you wake up and you’re just

back where you started

~Noah Berlatsky

drone

not knowing where to land

sunflowers

~Gareth Nurden

last goodbye

the cold cutting

of the moon

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Gradual End of Days

Fimbulwinter

on right.

Ragnarök

to left.

Both seek

the center.

~Chad Parenteau

caught

within my kundabuffer

bluebirds

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

guru worship

i wash down my meds

with a mantra

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

the tattered thread count of inner-linens

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

slow corruption the body of state

~John Hawkhead

 

downtrodden an unexploded word

~John Hawkhead

At night, trees ask each other

How to escape to freedom.

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

straying from the herd

my legs leap from the bed

as I fall asleep

~M. R. Pelletier

life lessons

I get better & better

at being no good

~M. R. Pelletier

election month

prisoners released

in large numbers

~Bipasha Majumder (De)

potatoes

sold at a high rate

politicians

~Bipasha Majumder (De)

illumination

what I don’t get

from watching T.V.

~Douglas J. Lanzo

budget debates

what used to precede

shutdowns

~Douglas J. Lanzo

 

politicians

explaining away votes

babbling brooks

~Douglas J. Lanzo

peace agreements –

the devil's plan

in the details

~Nicoletta Ignatti

virtual keyboard . . .

collecting my fingerprints

on the screen


~Oscar Luparia

feline paw the new vase ready for kintsugi


~Oscar Luparia