Our 2025 Touchstone Award Nominations

Congratulations are in order for these Five Fleas nominees:


wishbones

fearing the snap

of disappointment


Joanna Ashwell



press conference-

the stomping

leads to whine


dan smith



living for years on Aretha's 'huh'


Patrick Sweeney



after the rapture a world without dogs


Julie Bloss Kelsey



distant sun

deadheading paper roses

in art therapy


Steve Black



she grabbed her walker

& rolled right out the front door

destined for the sea

Stephen Ground



she ran her fingers

through his bird's nest of a beard

& pulled out an egg


Stephen Ground



moon landing what if I have to pee

Martina Matijević



wardrobe update . . .

i crochet myself

a wise woman’s shawl


Kelly Sauvage Moyer



Curly's response

to tyranny

'nyuk, nyuk, nyuk'


Patrick Sweeney



the bad

comes with the good

joined at the head


Jerome Berglund



border crossing

an elephant stamps

my passport

Colleen M. Farrelly



tinkling triangles

the Pythagorean orchestra

a roomful of squares


Robert Witmer



thought a staircase ending mid air

Vijay Prasad



full of himselfie

Robert Witmer

Afternoon of November 17, 2025

 


Official Account

 

My brain

is the best brain

and filled with things.

 

~Noah Berlatsky

 

 

 

textile tariffs

the emperor’s

new clothes

~Mike Fainzilber



 

suffer little children

the smell

of rotting rice

~Mike Fainzilber




outwitting three lions a porcupine

~Tejendra Sherchan


 

 

new neighbor woodpecking the silence

~Hynek Koziol




some bullet shards

in his body

never taken out

~Hynek Koziol




old circus -

no rabbits left

in the hat


~Hynek Koziol




hearing

the latest news...

anticyclonic gloom

~Melissa Dennison




if I

     go that way --

             hoping for a

                pot of gold

~Melissa Dennison




frass...

the signature

of a moth

~Melissa Dennison

 

 


a black and white movie

from the year he was born ...

hospice


~Joseph P. Wechselberger




happy hour

a man across the bar

winks and smiles

~Joseph P. Wechselberger


 

 

listening to Frozen

letting my niece

paint my nails

~Stephen C. Curro



 

dewdrop

all the cosmos

on one leaf

~Stephen C. Curro

 

Morning of November 15, 2025

 

 

 

there again this morning

the retired racehorse in the meadow

~Patrick Sweeney




I eat tub after tub of sketchy blackberries

but will never write that well

~Nicholas De Marino




slipping

in and out of our lives

court rulings

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




economic depression

even Orion tightens

his belt


~Amber Winter




blustery day

turning my locks

into murder weapons

~Amber Winter




bouncing up

and down the escalator

tariffs

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




following stars

Australian Moth navigates

its way

~Tejendra Sherchan




recreating

once-celebrated works

AI

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




life has gotten easier since paper flowers

~Patrick Sweeney




expecting silk in a sip of mulberry wine

~Patrick Sweeney




cold fingers breaking the suction of my cup lava flow

~Amber Winter




buddhas never seem to need a leg to stand on

~Patrick Sweeney




when they tell you what the least of your worries should be

~Patrick Sweeney