Afternoon of April 13, 2023

estate sale:

a poem

with every possum

~Kelly Moyer

signal drops

wolfman hits the keys

harder

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

8 Bayshore

There's a photo of us on somebody's phone

where we're standing together all on our own

and I absolutely love it because your eyes are closed

you’re not sleeping or blinking, you’re just eyes closed

don’t ask me why, I just adore it more

I never wonder what you’re looking at or what you’re thinking

I know you’re in there

and for today, that’s enough for me

~Christian Garduno

spring rain dancing across the pelvic floor

~John Hawkhead

gun shot down in one

~John Hawkhead

There was a time I would have said

“That’s impossible!”

But now I know

it doesn’t matter that much.

~Noah Berlatsky

I've seen coral bleached

birds die in the air

trees burst into flames

fish float bloated -

I hope this is a dream

~Steve Van Allen

lost innocence

the shortcake

free of its scent

~Kelly Moyer

Things that make me smile:

Random acts of kindness

A baby’s wave

~Jennifer Gurney

jailbreak the sparrow in your rearview mirror

~Kelly Moyer

wishbones playing chicken til our luck runs out

~Kelly Moyer

alley

three unkempt men take turns biting

a chocolate bunny

~John J. Dunphy

 

 

The movie ends

and we go back

to dark

without a plot.

~Noah Berlatsky

Afternoon of February 3, 2023

calling bell

nobody comes in

one goes away

~Bipasha Majumder

Cyborgs

without brains

smoosh.

~Noah Berlatsky

3 am -

a shriek from the top

of the wardrobe

~Juliet Wilson

hissing

from a straw blade

a praying mantis

gets eaten by one

less pious

~Christina Chin / M. R. Defibaugh

Hives

Who says the monk cilice shirt,

hair of sackcloth, penance ash,

cannot be simply fleas at work,

lashes, stripes, the welts of bites,

or even hives, bee-keeping work?

~Stephen Kingsnorth

air raid

a mum-to-be writhing

in labour pain

~Bipasha Majumder

new rank promises of war

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

picking willow twigs

from the frozen moat

(he’s no jesus)

~David Cox

hototogisu

I still don’t understand you

hototogisu

~Noah Berlatsky

Morning of April 22, 2024

freedom

on the other side

of an open door

~Jennifer Gurney

no doctors lurking in the apple orchard

~petro c. k.

apparently money doesn’t grow on trees

                                                                         cherry blossoms

~Joshua St. Claire

pause in the relationship girlfriend in a comma

~petro c. k.

crisis of absolutely everything bagel

~petro c. k.

Ghost Walk

A beam, opens up the shadowy

misty, nighttime sadness beyond

the casket of the temporary.

Filled with hidden, earthly treasures.

Then, you appear, pale, opaque,

playing in my mind, on repeat.

~Keith Snow

he stumbles on the line

circus tightrope walker fails

the police sobriety test

~John J. Dunphy

unable

to keep noise out

I let silence in

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

spiral staircase

the vertigo of

twisted truths

~Leon Tefft

people are complicated

people are dead

people keep being

like a hammer to the head

~Noah Berlatsky

frosted windows

clearly visible

memory loss

~Leon Tefft

inflation

just a few more

cherry blossoms

~Joshua St. Claire

No line that I have written

will ever be remembered.

No, not this one.

No, not this one either.

~Noah Berlatsky

Morning of April 21, 2023

All day I dream

of naps.

~Noah Berlatsky

On waking

A beautiful dream.

So short. So short.

And you wonder why

I sleep so much.

~Joseph Farley

A trendy young poet from Gotham

had verses tattooed on his scrotum

        but later was sued

        when seen in the nude

by a lady who claimed that she wrote ’em.

~Alex Barr

gothic behavior

in the distance

a millennium child floats

~CJ The Tall Poet

Helen (Mrs Menelaus)

never meant to cause chaos

and wished instead of launching a thousand ships

she’d stayed home to write 'Helen’s Handy Household Tips'.

~Alex Barr

The algorithm

has chosen me for greatness.

But

for how long?

~Noah Berlatsky

Don’t Hide

Dance you crazy fool

to the beat of your desire

Don’t hide yourself from anyone

don’t let the intimidators tell you otherwise

~L. Sydney Abel

I exist.

Ain't it a shame.

At least now you now

Have someone to blame.

~Joseph Farley

4.20

a book shop customer pays me

with three joints

~John J. Dunphy

Dress pants, bald heads in

office building parking lots.

A song of key fobs.

~Terry Trowbridge

scrabble —

ma fails to

arrange peace

~Debarati Sen

Of course

There is no such thing as love, but she still gives you the best piece of stale bread.

Of course, you had a cyst for you never emptied the bottle. Of course, you are scared that time

will be over - one minute. Of course, the sky will turn white and fall like the petals of cherry

blossoms. Of course, the child won't see any birds for night has come early.

~Sunayna Pal

Breath Has Spirit

 

The wind blew

I breathed

Breath has spirit

Not all kindly

~L. Sydney Abel

My poems have been

Swimming in the shallow end,

Afraid of the depths,

Floating on facile rhymes, as

They slowly dog paddle home.

~Janet Stotts