Afternoon of January 11, 2026

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

half full

or half empty

old diary

~Jackie Chou

begging the nurse

to use a small needle

thorny roses

~Jackie Chou

puppy breeding

poems produced

not written

~Jackie Chou

winter cape

his avatar of me

as superwoman

~Jackie Chou

I collect

I collect defeated flowers

and keep them in the volatile vase.

~Partha Sarkar

letting the horses out attic door


~Kimberly Kuchar

drones…

born to copulate and die
 

~Wanda Amos

History Of Rock and Roll

Part 1

Tight pants boys

haunt and flaunt.

Loose lip girls

tease and please.

The music only

changes beats

every so many decades.

~R. Gerry Fabian

a star orbits another one my love for you


~Tejendra Sherchan

every time a train whistles: fernweh

~Arvinder Kaur

Amanda Gorman

said it for us

fiercely Good

~Jennifer Gurney

a young lizard

I wonder about its long tail

basking in the winter sun

~Tejendra Sherchan

In The Distance

All the pretty painted horses -

white, red, yellow and green -

going round and round

and up and down.

The glitz and glamor

is intoxicating

like sparkling seltzer spritzer.

Within the dizzying reverberations,

joy jostles and jumps.

~R. Gerry Fabian

rain in the house

all my books

start to talk

~Emil Karla

you won't do it, will you?

the worried disbelief

that makes him do it

~Emil Karla

just toy soldiers

endless echoes

of forever wars

~Stephanie Zepherelli

Dead

Despite

different structures,

Dead remain dead.

~Partha Sarkar

Cardamon black tea

A cup savored

When the world is chilled

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Where

do we die

when we go?

~Nicholas De Marino

 

 

 

 

Five Fleas Store

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

Afternoon of January 8, 2026

Hurry! Submissions open through January 9.

          this year

    I will remember

to eat the panettone


~Tony Williams

everyone wants to know why

she's keeping her first dream

to herself

~Patrick Sweeney

there's no sitting down in my mind

~Patrick Sweeney

a twisted sycamore branch in the snow

how right they were about me

~Patrick Sweeney

never to return

she prepares her trip

to settle in Mars

flowers already begin

to bloom there

~Tejendra Sherchan

piano recital

second-chance student

taller than the rest

~Randy Brooks

the night before Christmas

a flea was silently

stirring

~Randy Brooks

food for thought

his namesake nibbles

on GMOs

~Peter Jastermsky

burnt butter

the sun leans in

a bit closer

~Peter Jastermsky

three pops democracy lies bleeding

~Melissa Dennison

ICE shoots to kill

America declares war

on America

~Patricia Carragon

family photo album gliding through my traumatic stages of adolescence

~Martina Matijević

Negotiation 101 the exam our world failed twice

~Martina Matijević

A Few Reminders

The Art of Haiku open now

https://artofhaiku.org/entry/

The Solitary Daisy wants haiku related to the New Year, deadline Jan 14


https://thesolitarydaisy.ca/2025/12/issue-65-moon-haiku/

Haikuniverse open for your submissions

https://haikuniverse.com/submit/

The English-Speaking Union of Japan accepting poems through Jan 25

https://www.esuj.gr.jp/event/5_index_detail.php

 

 

Afternoon of January 7, 2026

 

quantum blackjack

quantum blackjack

my cards add up to 21

for a moment

~John J. Dunphy

bankruptcy

my mail box filled with

credit card offers

~John J. Dunphy

tattoo of a fairy

its nose red

from a mosquito bite

~John J. Dunphy

hospice vigil

dying man asks

a relative to pray

in a lower voice

~John J. Dunphy

rushing to shine

before city lights are on

the full moon

~Tejendra Sherchan

independent cinema

brought to you

by the deep state

it's ostensibly

criticizing

~Jerome Berglund

Middle age is when

half the funerals

are for someone younger.


~Jeffrey Taylor

I Reside in Metaphor

Like god

Like family

Like anything

More abstract

Than the present

Moment

~Scott Parker

On Being a Poet

I didn't write this line,

but I did have the chance

to read it first.

~Scott Parker

Here we go

Another shift

In the paradigm

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

in season utter nonsense


~Roberta Beach Jacobson

the world as it was

when i was young

city fog

~Gareth Nurden

stained curtain,

Grilled window, Light pollution.

But beyond that

- the cosmos.

~David Mitchell

rhythm

from his brown eyes...

the violinist

~Fatma Zohra Habis

on the eighth day

he created the wind

and it blew me away

~Bonnie J Scherer

out for the count five fleas

~Barrie Levine

2026

an accident

that didn’t wait to happen


~Barrie Levine

 

 

https://sonicboomjournal.wixsite.com/sonicboom/submission-guidelines

 

https://femkumag.wixsite.com/home/guidelines