Afternoon of July 6, 2026

    

The Wonderful Sentence came from the never-happen house, the almost 

glance, the experimenting smile that won’t let go, even if it hurts and 

wounds the poem, hardly written a moment ago.

~John Vlachos

mushrooms

moonlit incantations

within the rain

~Joanna Ashwell

sunrise 

crickets continue singing 

in the cornfield 

~Tejendra Sherchan 

class reunion

everyone

sends their clone

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

dust under the bed

transition from state |Present

to state |Absent

I lie down on the bed

with the cat I don't have

~Marie Derley

Retribution

When God

hears her

ask why

horn of

plenty is

so loud.

~Chad Parenteau

You know you are a real poet

when you would rather pay bills

than write a poem.

~Noah Berlatsky

Cousin Papamanolis

Has seventy dogs (it is said)

And cats too numerous to count

He's a beekeeper and lives alone

Save for all the animals

Cousin Papamanolis used to be a priest

His gentle smile and weather beaten face

Bare witness to no fall from grace

He's a friend and distant relative

In all ways he is superlative

~Olinda Ninolakis

Street strawberries 

Wrong moment, wrong road

Writing your path 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

Chairs 

Chairs stacked. 

Sitting people, a makeshift person of illusions;

a beside you friend dressed in a remarkable imagination; 

so much passion in so little living doesn’t of what matters should in

the beside, should in the you to be supposing chairs have shadows. 

~John Vlachos

complaint box

my government receives

41,000

~Tejendra Sherchan

in the shower me and the spider

~Bernadette O'Reilly  

salad greens

accidentally eating

my pet ant

~Ruth Holzer

a long stretch

with nothing happening

my plane at the gate

~Ruth Holzer

anger management--

circling the bully 

a whisper of butterflies 

~Wendy Cobourne

Second Amendment vs. FIFA



A well regulated Cup, being necessary to the security of a sports tyrant,

the right of the people to keep and bear Baloguns, shall not be infringed.


~ Nicholas De Marino

back in my skin every grain of sand an earthquake

~Richard Magahiz

the age of the toothless sightless mouth

~Richard Magahiz

Afternoon of July 3, 2026

 

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

A THIRD OPTION

We're scared of life,

we're scared of death,

and despite all of god's 

creations he forgot to

offer us a third option.

~Stephen Philip Druce

evening news

the way 

things aren't
 

~M. R. Pelletier 

clear-cut

the price of things

not worth the cost
 

~M. R. Pelletier 

an ant

in my shadow

scurries to find its shadow

~Noah Berlatsky

no diet will help

I'm weighted down by

a heavy heart

~John J. Dunphy

this urgent need
 
for more mass-produced plastic

war escalation

~Joshua St. Claire

shattered skylight all my broken dreams


~Mona Bedi

birthright to call this land your home

~Kimberly Kuchar

A has been moment deprived of itself. 

~John Vlachos

a white butterfly 

on the pool manager's

big wet toe

~Patrick Sweeney

below the radar

in the Reflecting Pool . . .

creature from the black lagoon

~Barrie Levine

waiting room . . .

where People magazines gather

for years

~Barrie Levine

he could see how someone would end up

living in a garage apartment with 60 cats
 

~Patrick Sweeney

it turns out I can't use those super helical cloud wisps anywhere near the Potomac

and nobody sitting near me on the city bus wants to know why

~Patrick Sweeney

assassination the dow hits record highs of inequality

~Bruce H. Feingold

end of the road waving to the invisible man Waymo

~Bruce H. Feingold

I fold the sky into a small apology.

~Manasa Reddy Chichili

A letter arrives without any words.

~Manasa Reddy Chichili

If truth be told,

my appetite is simply 

not as robust

as it was 

before they began

installing sticky zippers

into the spicy salmon roll.

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

My husband 

contends

that my yarn stash

is a rat’s nest,

but I’ve only

been bit

while tenderly

stroking his hair.

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

I'm the goat-faced poet ringing his honorable mention bell

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.audubon.org/florida/news/center-birds-of-prey-launches-haiku-contest-person-storywalk?bclid=IwY2xjawS025hleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFJTW0xTVh6WW1DVmdTdjd2c3J0Yw
ZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHkXXdTHQ6_1LCztLsufHJPb4p3bjx8mro
SYToKi5Jdpud6SDYdX3N1EXXLKX_aem_2xQssw0PKSt3Z0vPEUSFiA

Afternoon of June 28, 2026

  

 

empty parking lot the solo cup tumbleweed 


~Bryan Rickert

 

 

tattered wings the butterfly’s anvil

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

 

playing in traffic the crows of my youth

~Bryan Rickert

 

2026 wall-to-wall bed lamp

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

raven feathers

 

night photography

she flies

with the shadows

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer/Isabella Mori

 

mountain magick

another puff of dust

from the chainsaw

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

Then why? 

As there is birth....so is there death...

Then why does one keep vacuum between two lights? 

~ Partha Sarkar

day or night

the crescent moon

on my palm

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

 

 

bumpy landing

reentering the atmosphere               

of morning

~Anne Fox

 

  

https://drifting-sands-haibun.org/submissions/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evening of June 25, 2026

Submit anytime: Medusa’s Kitchen

https://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com

the abstract gesture of forgotten thought

~dan smith

the purple prose of yellow journalism

~dan smith

mom’s watchful eyes after this white butterfly

~Maya Daneva

eating quantum pi at the Science Fair

~dan smith

waiting for straight talk

in talks about

the Strait


~Douglas J. Lanzo

 

leaping for joy

FIFA players

at first hydration break

~Douglas J. Lanzo

 

The silence 

Between our names 

Fills with moonlight 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

 

No more war

No more violence 

No more division 

No more excision

No more genocide 

No more femicide

No more nature drowned

No more debris on the shore 

No more trees felled

The crow's voice caws "NO MORE"....

~Olinda Ninolakis

 

war

again 

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

ouija board

the spirit keeps

misspelling words

~John J. Dunphy

 

leaving

the smell of diesel exhaust

at the bus terminal

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

Deadline July 31: Horror Senryu Journal (print version)

https://horrorkujournal.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

Deadline July 15: Modern Haiku

https://modernhaiku.org/submissions.html

Evening of June 24, 2026

Open all this month: Only Human Senryu

https://www.onlyhumansenryu.com/guidelines

Open through July 1: Kokako

https://kokako10.wordpress.com/submissions/

Writer's block - 

my inner critic

never short of words

~Caroline Ridley-Duff

dark laughter

vultures hover over

the hospital

~Bob Carlton

 

dawn in

the sewer the

crazed rat

fidgets and

waits for

his chance at

what he

knows not

~Bob Carlton

 

he said something about the dangerous individualism of the wren

~Patrick Sweeney

with Ice at the door: would I calmly eat my pot-au-feu

like Labiche in "The Train'

~Patrick Sweeney

happy in our gravity: we agreed we'd be crushed on Jupiter

and dunking from the foul line on Mercury

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

Box of ghosts

All those crooked photographs 

Ashes of youth 


~Sarah Mahina Calvello 

though he lightly touched on the ripple effects of 1096

people kept moving away from him

~Patrick Sweeney

 

all I had to do was sit in the sun and count my freckles

~Patrick Sweeney

tracing my anxiety back to the Three Little Pigs

and a possible flaw in the mathematics of revolving doors

~Patrick Sweeney

the bin

filled to the brim again

this eternal fuss over

who takes out the trash

~Jackie Chou

 

exasperated 

in a long bus ride

I lose track

of what I want in life

~Jackie Chou

I've been in the middle of nowhere before

~Patrick Sweeney

Submit anytime: Circle of Salt Mag

https://circleofsaltmag.blogspot.com/

Submit anytime: smols

https://smolspoetryjournal.blogspot.com/