Afternoon of March 26, 2026

I’m Your Venus

pushing the limit

the weep of a bomb

before it explodes

~Robert Moyer

a lie tightens

the muscles in her face

congressional hearing

~Robert Moyer

every year the mirror

gets older

~Noah Berlatsky

I can’t rest in peace

Instead haunting

In retribution

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

let the crows haunt you

singing of my magic

until you go

mad,

and i will dance on your

bones in a red dress.

~linda m. crate

dancing with the moon

no one listens to

my problems,

but the stars are

pretty tonight;

don't ask me why

i would rather dance

with the moon than you.

~linda m. crate

the dreams tell me

i am lestat's daughter,

and i don't question them;

i have always had fangs

and a need for attention.

~linda m. crate

another dimension

i opened another

dimension,

crawled in those bones

instead;

like my odds better

there.

~linda m. crate

the yowling cats

hiss my concern

over the world.

~linda m. crate

i can't love you anymore

because that means

abandoning

me.

~linda m. crate

family photo

her shoulder blocking

half of her husband

~Ingrid Bruck

dusty apartment

before she moved in

after she left

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

swamp tour

only a few tourists

eaten

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

holy war swag . . .

upon each wrist a bracelet asks,

“What would Genghis Khan do?”

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

spring flowers

preparing

for nuclear winter

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

last gasp

the constitution’s DNR order

written with AI

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

 

paper cup—

bubble gum

underneath

~Elliot Diamond

Get your bug ku to the annual Hexapod Contest!


https://ento.psu.edu/about/facilities/frost/hexapod

ideally not for predation the ironclad beetle


~Tejendra Sherchan

sitting on the broken curb of childhood

~Patrick Sweeney

my inner yes to the first dandelion

~Patrick Sweeney

yellow forsythia interfacing with the cyclone fence

~Patrick Sweeney

he's fairly certain his family would turn him in for the reward

~Patrick Sweeney

with two forms of ID where and when I could not prove who I am

~Ron Scully

snowing apple blossoms the weather report is on to the bombing

~Ron Scully

extragalactic night the moons shine down alone

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

quantum universe

I reset my watch

again

~John J. Dunphy

mouse!

my cat pounces

into an empty box

~John J. Dunphy

March

a bungee jump of

unpredictability

~Jennifer Gurney

where have we been

all these years

pretending we are okay

~Jennifer Gurney

 

https://confluencehaiku.com/prize/

https://nordeweeklyupdate.my.canva.site/aoty

 

 

 

Morning of March 25, 2026

 Five Fleas Swag

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

scrolling through the void

until the thumb

forgets its purpose —

an evolutionary

u-turn


~Jacek Margolak

my shadow

longer than my intentions —

the sun

is such

a perfectionist

~Jacek Margolak

smoke rises

from

a saxophone

an exclamation

point

emerging

~Peter Jastermsky

 

future-proofing

a world

without stairs


~Tony Williams

patches of snow

this world

of yesterday

~Maya Daneva

january is when

you can hide your bones

under the snow

and pretend the snow isn't red

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Previously published in Shot Glass Journal)

bombs crack

the sky open

raining fire

another cry for peace rises

~Belinda Behne

she prefers only

drinking dry red wines

ash-throated flycatcher

~Amber Winter

courage

on urban streets

ICE storm

~Jenny Sharpe

two suns above me–

astigmatism’s

new world visions


~Jenny Sharpe

neurotypical

neurotypical

neurotypical

neurotypical

neurotypical

neurotypical

neurotypical

neurotypical

neurotypical

neurotypical

~Noah Berlatsky

double doubles

at Tim Hortons

elbows up

~Jenny Sharpe

tempus fugit(ive)

~Billy Antonio

her cries wakes me cat or banshee

~Bernadette O'Reilly

stringing her charm bracelet with contradictions

~Stephanie Zepherelli

breathing freely

the yoga instructor

doesn’t show

~Stephanie Zepherelli

Evolution

We swim.

I drown.

You float.

I glide.

~Outis

 

 

Afternoon of March 18, 2026

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

her breath -

the air i

become

~Vijay Prasad

GPS

when did I stop

leading my life

~Anne Fox

Empty sidewalks feel

like sitting in the closet

with a bottle of spiced rum.

Unnatural, disgustingly comfortable,

That place I can easily go back to,

Time and again.

~R.C. McClennen

rain-glazed streets

a sax solo drifts

from an open window

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

his death poem

scribbled on a napkin

hospice

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

letting my guard down

I get sick

every school holiday

~Jennifer Gurney

heard there was

a power vacuum for

exclusionary journals

please consider us for your

next impersonal form rejection


~Jerome Berglund

holy war swiss accounts

~Jerome Berglund

needles of ice in the peace march wind


~John Hawkhead

counselling a word to the whys


~John Hawkhead

as if there was not a worry migrating geese


~Mona Bedi

all the stars i never saw insomnia


~Mona Bedi

sea glass what the years make of us


~Mona Bedi

fading Polaroids of my childhood

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

bus(k) stop no one paying to get on board

~Debbie Strange

a flood of lies we lose the (moral) high ground

~Debbie Strange

social media all the time we spend quiddling . . .

~Debbie Strange

still searching

in all poinsettias

a deserted love

~Tejendra Sherchan

fish curry

the cat licking

the empty bowl

~Debarati Sen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open until April 2
 

https://forms.gle/Ddv4osez67hC9DAW6 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Afternoon of March 17, 2026

 

https://forms.gle/4RLAYbLK9eR8xVFp9

the woman

who never wanted

children

now tired

of tending her houseplant

~Ruth Holzer

boxing up my books

someone else will do it

the next time

~Ruth Holzer

lauded

for their warriorship

state-sponsored rapists

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

100 copies

the day we became

the enemy from within

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

for the love

of burning oil in the morning

the chaos theory

~Wanda Amos

for over three decades

bigwigs run our state in turn

leaving trillions in debts...

and we continue to toil

in the Animal Farm

~Tejendra Sherchan

winter morn pretending we’re not sliding downhill

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

he's 45 minutes away

from his first Gaelic punchline

~Patrick Sweeney

from the back row:

what if I don't want to be myself!

~Patrick Sweeney

the deep biology of her smile

~Patrick Sweeney

suspecting some Upper Paleolithic trauma in the bloodline

~Patrick Sweeney

when you've no idea what you're doing

you've a better chance

of writing a masterpiece

~Patrick Sweeney

I keep waiting for you

to turn on the light

until I notice

that my eyes are closed.

~Noah Berlatsky

my wristwatch cursed

the hands stuck on midnight

witching hour forever


~Brian Rosenberger

tide pool

a crab

between shells


~Elliot Diamond

raining

cats and dogs

taking shelter

~Jennifer Gurney

We Are

aggregates of atoms

constellations coalesced

that get to feel

the burning arc

of stars.

~dan smith

Inventory

going through my old poems

it hits me    erasure

is the way to go

~dan smith

reinvent yourself

the last AI command

ever made by Man

~Douglas J. Lanzo

Unclaimed

The tether snaps. The blue dot shrinks. The shuttle fades. The void refuses.

~Outis