Five Fleas’ Nominations for the 2025 Red Moon Anthology

Congratulations to these 12 talented poets!

nature

without politics

backyard garden


~Jerome Berglund

Vox Populi

once a whisper

now a scream

~dan smith

drizzle, rain, drizzle…

chill in my bones –

uncertain diagnosis

~Maya Daneva

ten milligrams away from melancholy this new life

~Ruth Holzer

Rock Creek

swimming with grandkids

and ecoli


~Kimberly Kuchar

telling the cactus you’ll have water in about two weeks

~Sharon Ferrante

tail raised on mudstone

a dragonfly's

prehistoric longing

~Patrick Sweeney

coral caves

the weave of a tail

mermaiding

~Joanna Ashwell

what’s the trick

for staying grounded here?

well, gravity

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

moving day—

the rice cooker

leaves for college

~Julie Bloss Kelsey

fallen branches scars of a previous lifetime

~Patricia Hawkhead

 

doubt

maybe a hesitation

in the knees

~M. R. Pelletier

 

 

More of Our 2025 Award Nominations

Pushcart Prize Nominations

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Morning of December 5, 2025

 

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Voting ends December 7!

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Hoodie Portrait

The old homeless man

pulls his hoodie up,

his head framed

in an oval portrait.

Diane Webster

zen practice

i watch

paint dry

John J. Dunphy

my one trick yoyo

up and down

up and down

Randy Brooks

college stage

Chekov never was

so funny

Randy Brooks

midday sun

trickling downstream

snowmelt

Gareth Nurden

family home visit

mildew on the attic wall

fading a lullaby


Hifsa Ashraf

 

 

child custody talk

in the backyard

budding mushrooms

Hifsa Ashraf

Our uncivilized hurriedness

 
'Excuse me... would you..'

'Just shut up'.

Partha Sarkar

Whispers

A long postcard from an ancient postman

And no door is open...

Are there whispers in the chilled stillness?

Partha Sarkar

on the sidewalk

an abir-smeared rock

worshiped as God

Tejendra Sherchan

morning devotees

line up at the temple gate

amid drifting smoke

a flower girl hesitates

basket resting by her side

Jagajit Salam

everything

depends on how

the footsteps echo

Sarah Mahina Calvello

shift of perspective

twilight’s camera

loses focus

Sarah Mahina Calvello

Picnic Table Snow

Snow cover tracked up

by wandering humans

around the picnic table

swept clean once.

Now abandoned

and exposed.

Diane Webster

Leaves Reach

October leaves cover

boardwalk boards

as if to reach back

into history when each

was a part of the tree.

 

A widow lies

on the gravestone

of her dead husband —

separate as October leaves.

Diane Webster

decomposing

in the compost pile

last week's politics


Joseph P. Wechselberger

dog scientists

worked hard to recreate Man

all night they howled

David C. Kopaska-Merkel

I find

the rest of you

in our usual spot

David C. Kopaska-Merkel

family gathering

several versions

of potato salad


Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

eating hors d'oeuvres

with toothpicks

Christmas party


Joseph P. Wechselberger

strip club

its Christmas tree

bare

John J. Dunphy

 

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Morning of December 2, 2025

 

 

over the hill

the growing list

of I-don’t-cares

~Joshua St. Claire

conflicting deadlines

my boss asks me what I mean

by Kafkaesque

~Joshua St. Claire

poetry pizza


~Mykyta Ryzhykh

haiku poet

in the time it takes to be a river stone

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

 

the novel

I’ll never write

rain-glazed ibis

~Joshua St. Claire

 

240-million-year-old ammonite

in her three-year-old hand

~Patrick Sweeney

he's focused now on the ripple effects of 1096

nobody's going to want to get stuck sitting next to him at dinner

~Patrick Sweeney

popping a beta blocker for another turn of the Earth

~Patrick Sweeney

announcing he's not wearing the Santa hat this Christmas

~Patrick Sweeney

infinitesimal calculus

the VP's budget

next year’s raises

~Joshua St. Claire

two-olive martini

she introduces me

as artistic

~Joshua St. Claire

Cat

Why after all these years

have you declared war

on the rug?

~Noah Berlatsky

wish list

flux capacitor

set for before you left

~Jennifer Gurney

 

further down the road

hoping I won't need to remind myself

to breathe
 

~Jennifer Gurney

future

such a painful concept

now

~Jennifer Gurney

Dumb

No thoughts or prayers

Can help save the naysayers

Say the soothsayers


~Bruce Morton

doubt

maybe a hesitation

in the knees

~M. R. Pelletier

pitted stone

out the front

of the dentist's

i place a hand

against the stone facade

think about my teeth

think about the pitted stone

then walk off

looking for a glass

of wine

~Michael Buckingham Gray

runoff flow

the slow burn

of urban broth

~Peter Jastermsky

road construction

an upscale boutique

held hostage

~Peter Jastermsky

imposter syndrome

arriving at work in a

hot dog costume

~John Pappas

death poem putting the I in archive

~John Pappas

school drop-off

a mother and son duck

under police tape

~John Pappas

I’ll be happy

When I find someone to

To watch tv with

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

There is a fine line

Between independence and loneliness

Find your village

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

If You Believe

That misery loves company

just knock on the door

and watch all the lights

go out

~Gloria Parker

Keep in Mind

Only the rats that

desert the sinking ship

live to tell the tale.

~Gloria Parker

 

 

VOTING CLOSES DECEMBER 7

 

 

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