Afternoon of September 6, 2026

  

excising the tumour

a tulip bulb                              

lifted from earth

~Gavin Austin

 

 

 

intolerance flouncing in the drag of religion 

~Gavin Austin

 

 

stretching one foot into the morning headlines

~Gavin Austin

 

bridging

the divide                                

Frida’s brow

~Gavin Austin

 

the bourbon bottle trying to put yesterday back 

~Gavin Austin

Mosquitoes

 

Little drops of my blood

flit around the yard.

~Noah Berlatsky

The United States of Decline

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

After eating an apple and it turns to dust in your mouth.

~John Vlachos

cutting vegetables beauty in the beet 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

dead snail in my kitchen 

I didn’t  ask for its delicacy

~Tejendra Sherchan

just spell

my name right 

in blood 

~Jerome Berglund

 

 

lee side 

never 

a whydunnit 

~Jerome Berglund

 

 

this benefit 

of the doubt 

if applied it elsewhere…

~Jerome Berglund

fishing in the shadow

of nuclear power

no keepers

~Randy Brooks

 

Imperial Palace lagoon

the swans passing

a traffic jam

~Randy Brooks

 

temple bell clang—

the reclining buddha

can't stand

~Sherry Reniker

 

Punctuation 

Punctuation at my feet. I go nowhere.

~Partha Sarkar

 

 

 

stretches of time long journey of winding roads 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

    

 

 

 

 

Submit September 15-30

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Afternoon of September 4, 2026

 

evening birds the empty sky grows wings.

~Manasa Reddy Chichili

deciphering pieces of myself alongside moonlight 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

hours tick by this life perfect and messy 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

tending past scars the moon an uncut gem that needs polishing 


~Sarah Mahina Calvello

weighted weave Minoan stone combs through summer's slowness


~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Forbidden Man 

Is someone hiding between the lines? Is a shape making a faint shadow on the wall? The

concussions of touching, reverberating shocks from glances that actually look back. 

The ends of the world would not be enough, squandering enough for the ends of the 

world.

~John Vlachos

temple bells

lost in the deluge

prayers for Nepal

~Belinda Behne

          (fly)

(fly)                  (UFO)

                    (fly)

                         (land)

~Nicholas De Marino

surveillance pricing

cost of progress

googolplexia

~Nicholas De Marino

must have served

at least one term

help wanted

~M. R. Pelletier

coaxing a song

from cosmic strings 

theremin

~Joshua St. Claire

ellipses

the meandering rot 

of icebox plums

~Joshua St. Claire

a violation

of Newton’s Third Law

sunflower

~Joshua St. Claire

wandering hedgehog

steps away from

crystal moon

~Gareth Nurden

wearing the white coat

of sheep

mountain summit

~Gareth Nurden

 

selfie of my selfie myself

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

i hate pluto and why not

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad

searching for the good side of the gargoyle's face

~Patrick Sweeney

world in chaos...

and I'm thinking about fitting candy corn fangs on my teeth

for the kids this Halloween

~Patrick Sweeney

it was a relief to learn that men with piles

won't be sacrificed to the river gods

~Patrick Sweeney 

 

 

 

midnight

millions of fools on social media

like me

~Yasir Farooq 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Afternoon of August 30, 2026

 

Binocular Vision  

                            

An owl’s laugh

within her smile

is an obvious omen

that her feathered heart

is strained and confined

beyond the 

270 degree vision.

 

She promises to love me

but not until

her wings are muffled.

~R. Gerry Fabian 

swimming in suburbia 

life can be so good 

without a name 

~Mike Fainzilber

late bloomer

another abstract flower

for the hospice wall

~dan smith

the long hallways of the hardhearted

~Patrick Sweeney

mazarine blue in the parking lot sky of his loss

~Patrick Sweeney

too brief moments silence becomes heavy when the noise stops 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

maybe the lesson is to go down a road with no stars

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

the blank checks and imbalances

of the three branches of government

~Patrick Sweeney

the only hero

who could ever

save me was me.

~linda m. crate 

frozen ground 

the grudge

she holds

~Ingrid Bruck

ring around the rosie

they have us

sing songs 

of the plagues

which never knew

our names,

while giving us

plagues that do.

~linda m. crate 

Clark Kent always came to dinner over the holidays;

only my father knew who he really was…

~Patrick Sweeney

science fair

student disqualified when his project

eats the judge

~John J. Dunphy

 

Morning of August 28, 2026

 

Collected Them 

And finally there it was, the rusted remains of a shipwrecked poem interpreting the world.

Heaps of meanings had turned to rubble in the fields of death, a disharmony of babbling 

things escaping purgatory. 

The perpetrations, the vast interior spaces of self exploring the used to be, the am now 

here, the will be, the am being created in real time as we speak, the shifting of the flesh 

into my arms where it will find solace.

~John Vlachos

sit quietly, the song can swallow the moment

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

still unseen stars the rest is silent reflection 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

strider

caught in the cobweb

me in theirs

~Tejendra Sherchan 

 

another argument

at dinner

human vs. fly

~Sarah Paris

 

old farmstand

a frog jumps out

of the lettuce

~Sarah Paris

 

 

 

when she goes out

he plays the sax

when he goes out

she dances

~Sarah Paris

pulling the wings

of my thousandth crane

I pray for peace

~Jennifer Gurney

fire and flood

postcards from the Tribulation

on the bunker wall

~steve black

the rapture

a virgin Mary dancing

to Engelbert Humperdinck

~steve black

11-D

Turns out the 11-dimensional printer was just one more

Pandora’s Box. As if the manosphere wasn’t sloppy

enough. Now we have to deal with quantum anomalies

we only used to see at the subatomic level. So you

can be in two places at once. Big deal. Rob a bank

and have an alibi. You’re guilty as sin and they know it.

~Gerald Yelle

Norice

Someone said they always knew you were alive.

I personally didn’t know you at the time.

I’d never even heard of you until they said

you were dead. I don’t even know if you really

are the person I was thinking of.

~Gerald Yelle

chuuurrrrr chuuurrrrr cicadas say

they want to have sex

before they die

~Noah Berlatsky

frozen pizza 

both of us

cooked

~thomas david

work from home 

taking the peloton

out for a spin

~thomas david

spring cleaning 

removing

charlotte’s web

~thomas david

cobwebs

in the corners of a temple

catching the God

~Tejendra Sherchan

job search 

the odometer

rolls over

~thomas david

Bus Stop, 5:12 A.M.

Rain on the timetable.

Nobody reads it.

A bus arrives early,

opens its blue-lit mouth,

and takes the only witness.

~ALI Hasnain

Window Unit

All night the air conditioner

drags summer through metal.

At dawn, one drop

falls from the sill

and starts over.

~ALI Hasnain

 

Crosswalk

The white figure appears.

For twelve seconds

we are all allowed

to become

the other side.

~ALI Hasnain

 

Elevator Mirror

Eight floors upward,

my face keeps arriving

a fraction late.

The doors open.

It stays behind.


~ALI Hasnain

 

 

Morning of August 25, 2026

 

The Last Poet at Walmart

I found God in aisle nine

comparing prices on canned beans.

He looked older than scripture.

I asked if everything was okay.

He shrugged.

Inflation, apparently,

has reached Heaven.

~Joshua Walker

 

 

Extinction Event

 

The dinosaurs had an asteroid.

Rome had barbarians.

Atlantis had the sea.

We have passwords

requiring one capital letter,

one number,

and one symbol

we will never remember.

~Joshua Walker

THOUGHTS

 

Mostly

1 ignore them

but sometimes

they get me

thinking.

~John Grey  

 

A MAN IN MY SITUATION

 

I

thought

of

everything

 

and

that's

not

all

~John Grey  

What name

will she whisper

with her last breath

odds are it 

won't be 

yours

~dan smith

A  Neo-dada Love Poem Manifesto

listen to the Druds

not the drudges

watch the sunrise 

at Stonehenge

see it set 

on psycho empire

then throw paint 

at the moon

~dan smith

scattering

support for a brave people

sunflower seeds

~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky

fire ants

outraged

at the footprint

~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky

From shadow to shadow   

From shadow to shadow, a fairytale is a UFO.

~Partha Sarkar

another day eclipsed spiraling into the 

unknown 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

 

mad hatter midsummer frightened bird of hope 

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

elevator—

thirteenth floor

no breath

~Subhash Roy Choudhury

I would like to go outside

but I am writing this poem.

~Noah Berlatsky

 

Pure Screech

On television

he screams

I’m going

to murder

the precedent!

over and over.

~Chad Parenteau

 

The Apocalypse Was Delayed

Four horsemen

stood outside my window.

Death checked his phone.

Apparently

the end of the world

has been rescheduled

due to staffing shortages.

~Joshua Walker

 

 

Prayer

Dear God,

I know you’re busy

with wars, famine,

and the universe,

but the dog

has something in his mouth

and won’t tell me what.

Amen

~Joshua Walker