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

 


 

EASY TO VOTE!

https://www.chillsubs.com/best-lit-mag-awards

Afternoon of November 29, 2025

 


Migrant2

~Michael Lee Johnson



what we talk about

when we talk about

what we talk about

~Nicholas De Marino




junk mail

let's play

postman

~Yasir Farooq




house sparrow

through the one-way window

unreturned love

~Yasir Farooq




        baking bread

        yesterday’s news

        lights the fire

        ~Belinda Behne




first

Thanksgiving without you

empty chair

~Jennifer Gurney




without you

all the Vermillion Queens

will go astray


~Tejendra Sherchan




                                p

                                o

                                 r

             p     o     r     t     a     l

             o                  a

p     o     r     t     a     l

              t

              a

              l

~Nicholas De Marino




they should give us

a mute button for all the hurtful things

people say

~Jennifer Gurney





script kiddies pad thai


~Jerome Berglund




source music

cutting a switch

~Jerome Berglund




we call

them myths

plausible deniability

~Jerome Berglund




Whitepilled


Male

lone gunman

epidemic.

~Chad Parenteau




I have lost myself in Paris

Shed my English skin

Like a chameleon

Trying to fit in


Of course it is a waste of time

Parisians are fierce and not blind

Every little thing she does

Spells foreign... and yet


Paris has been kind to me

As kind as it gets

~Olinda Ninolakis




Don't say

Don't say 'nothing is impossible'.

I have done nothing in my whole life.

~Partha Sarkar




no after-dinner cleanup

our first Thanksgiving at

a soup kitchen

~John J. Dunphy




no joke

like the

present

~Helen Buckingham



Intervention


~Nicholas De Marino

 

 


Morning of November 27, 2025

 


Red vs Green

~dan smith



starless night—

inflation becomes

sky-high

~Martina Matijević




my state importing

all the worldly goods

except jobs

~Tejendra Sherchan




an urge to win

over my dark side

waxing moon

~Tejendra Sherchan




a thin slice

of pumpkin pie

crescent moon

~Elliot Diamond




winter night shivering crescent moon

~Tejendra Sherchan




guidance counselor either Simon or Garfunkel

~petro c. k.




masked symptoms hardening mass

deportation

~petro c. k.




now it's personal leopards at the door

~petro c. k.




meditation

listening to music

far and near

~Bipasha Majumder (De)




off to sleep

valerian tea

to the twilight zone

~Sarah Mahina Calvello




they waited while he made goofy faces...

the concave and convex sides

of the spoon

~Patrick Sweeney




one-man steps barefoot on a Lego

another joins the First Crusade

~Patrick Sweeney




three camels

in elevator

hump to hump

~Elliot Diamond




Insomnia

I don’t think that sheep

counts.

~Noah Berlatsky




fallen branches scars of a previous lifetime

~Patricia Hawkhead




sunset sketching in my shadows

~Patricia Hawkhead




seagulls

an invasive species

in my poems

~Oliver Kleyer