Afternoon of June 12, 2024

 

The Insomniac

~Kelly Moyer 

Photography available here




sand grains

all her bullying

word by word

~Nicoletta Ignatti




obsessive compulsive disorder

lapping of waves

back and forth

~Nicoletta Ignatti




Renaissance Fair

costumed reenactors line up

at a porta-potty

~John J. Dunphy




marijuana dispensary

all its employees

highly trained

~John J. Dunphy




You have to love poetry

to be a poet.

But the only poems

I really love

are mine.

~Noah Berlatsky




flooded Golden Trumpets

all heaped on a drainage filter…

muddied and rotting

~Tejendra Sherchan




it was always fresh fish,

fresh meat, fresh fruits

served on an ancient table

~Fhen M.




then came a C Ration

imported, stateside

a fine range of canned foods

for not so sophisticated palates

~Fhen M.




a jungle of palm trees

turned to modern civilization

now an airport without airplanes.

~Fhen M.




I feel ashamed


The chirpings.

Birds come.

I spread crumbs.

They take them.

A mother-bird feeds a nestling.

A divine motherhood starts a day without war.


I feel ashamed of my human structure- The warmonger.

~Partha Sarkar




wordplaying with double entrées is appetizing

~Keith Snow




desert crackling orange peels tequila sunrise

~Elliot Diamond




haystack of a vacant moo

~Elliot Diamond

 

 


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Afternoon of June 8, 2024


 Recruiting


before

activity

ends in the cerebrum

a precisely located shock

it jumps!

pattern

realigned with our objective

it thinks our thoughts believes

our ends our means

are best

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel




old stump

my old butt

good company

~Tom Blessing




Hey Joe, give me a chewing gum”

barefoot, soiled feet

this boy could have been my grandpa

~Fhen M.




just words

the jurors play

hangman

~Robert Witmer




the golden egg

each morning a different

goose

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel




summer sunset

a bulbul flutters out of a bush

and flies in a curve

~Tejendra Sherchan




My journey

Without a caravan.

Feel the vacuum, beloved.

~Partha Sarkar




the dune moves on

polished metal emerges

from the sands of Mars

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel




Knowing and Not Knowing

 

There are books on my kindle

I probably won’t read before I die.

 

So much knowledge

not in my head when my head

is filled with earth.

Who knows which books?

 

I mean, Finnegan’s Wake, obviously.

But other than that.

~Noah Berlatsky




candlelight

the fortune teller smiles

through the nervous shadows

~Robert Witmer




a white pale man

wore a Donald Duck hat

hired to build roads & airstrips

~Fhen M




flea circus

a mangy cat

snarls at a tiny chair

~Robert Witmer




lying listless

in wet mud

street cats

~Rupa Anand




catastrophic heat

the tree sheds mangoes

just to keep cool

~Rupa Anand




opal sky

the morning slug’s

trail of slime

~B. L. Bruce




sun slow to set

two hoots

from the owl

~B. L. Bruce




You are a hazy

moon, hiding

your intentions

in murky

mumblings.

~Nolcha Fox




annihilation—

Mexican Devils ravage a Peepal

halfway up

~Tejendra Sherchan




Pookie—

dancing to a cover of Boom  Boom

a hearty bowl of Soupy

~dan smith




"here

take everything I have"

i hold out my

empty hands

~Tom Blessing




dining out now checking for symptoms

~Ruth Holzer




giving the bird medicine he screams and dies

~Ruth Holzer




syrtaki for once joining the circle

~Ruth Holzer




waking to the brittle voices of the morning ravens

~Tom Blessing




memory

a brief visitor to my life

the man on a raft of cans

paddling down the ganges

at hardwar

neither of us knowing

the end of the journey

~Tom Blessing

 

 


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Evening of June 4, 2024


Invented Tongue

Griblish glubmitsch

Glinglyglingly

Beritched

Griblish glubmitsch

Mumubliblik


Demingcik digribnik

Duffisuffidly

Vifucked

Demingcik digribnik

SusuçuĐ½Đ¸Đº

~Olinda Ninolakis




the harder

I hold on

the harder letting go is

~Jennifer Gurney




barcoding

illogical fuzzy logic

tuxedo cats

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




Swiftly


swifts perform a passeggiata

at twilight in Chania harbour

tourists click pics on their mobile phone

parea gathers noone alone


poets recite verse in Terza rima now

the sun melts gently into the lighthouse - how

fast the transition from day to night

scent of jasmine our senses excited

~Olinda Ninolakis




minor misunderstanding

bring on the banjos

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




if I only knew

the path this journey

will lead to...

~Jennifer Gurney




in the corner of my eye

supernova remnant

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




write about

what you know

write about

nothing

~Noah Berlatsky

 

Evening of June 3, 2024


PRF (The Pluto Rehabilitation Front)


Let's campaign to rehabilitate Pluto!

Since I was a child

Pluto was the ninth planet

of our solar system.

I don't want to believe that our teachers

were wrong for so long

or that Pluto had a free ride.

Let's campaign to rehabilitate Pluto

FREE PLUTO - FREE PLUTO!

~Marie Derley




it's too easy now for loners to keep in touch

~Patrick Sweeney




always the first to spot Hitchcock

in the films

he never made

~Patrick Sweeney




leaving the bathroom

a female worker

washes her hands

at

the kitchen sink

~Tuyet Van Do




On the last day of May I lay down

And wept with joy for many things

For friends for foes for sunsets

Sunrise, birds' dawn chorus

Journeys in space time

Lines without rhyme

Love lasting

Soaring

Still

~Olinda Ninolakis




bracing my heart

for the letter in the mail

final papers

~Jennifer Gurney




late night fire pits

long, slow mornings...

the pace of summer

~Jennifer Gurney




droplets on glass

a race to the bottom

I always win

~John Hawkhead




he doesn't want to go to the search party

~Patrick Sweeney




strange quarks

I revise my story

one more time

~John Hawkhead




bulldozers cut coconut trees

to construct a Quonset hut community

~Fhen M.




coke is a symbol of friendship

one advertisement claimed

& we believe it.

~Fhen M.




when only time

stands between now and the end

the finality

~Jennifer Gurney




a fern fiddlehead--

why can't I bloom?

ever questioning

~Tejendra Sherchan






Afternoon of June 3, 2024




The Seductress

~Kelly Moyer

Photography available here

 

 

 

 

 

 



 




 

separating the river's twin spiriting a boat to drown in

~petro c. k.




innocent antarctic parallel pines

~J. D. Nelson




no possums in the propeller

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




never nevering

~petro c. k.




there once was a twice

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




could be risky hundreds & thousands

~J. D. Nelson



looking to blame Prometheus done with us

~petro c. k.




checkered bovine weirdly impoverished

~J. D. Nelson




digging in the snow

on Burns Night

a handsome skunk

~Janet Ruth Heller




“…not this poem, not this space…”

sweet spot, sucker-punched

solar plexus, took a direct hit

domain of negativity, engaged

like a match to dry hay, papers scorched

recall a poetic colloquialism

writer’s glass chin

~Suzanne S. Austin-Hill




power company

razes lilacs, wild peas—

war zone

~Janet Ruth Heller




antique chamber pot

elevated on a shelf

after all the shit

~Kimberly Kuchar




left in the dust

3-D coral reefers

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




high school stadium

a track hurdle jumped

by a deer

~John J. Dunphy




London wall

two men peeing

across time

~Kimberly Kuchar




behind the singing boys

guitar cover’s dreamcatcher

sways in the wind

~Tejendra Sherchan




my "happy father's day, dad"

drowned out by

the cemetery's lawnmower

~John J. Dunphy




birds

without beaks

ask for a drink

~Mykyta Ryzhykh


(Originally published in Password)




neither here nor there

meet me in Rumi's field

Somewhere Else

~Olinda Ninolakis




bone grates on bone

pain…movement slows

mobility aid

~JL Huffman




I used to feed

a stray cat and her kittens—

now I feed her alone

~Tejendra Sherchan




used furniture store

test-sitting a sofa

I rise with fleas

~John J. Dunphy


Morning of June 2, 2024


the pain of separation

tossing

peanuts to the crows

~Kelly Moyer




dusk

crow

bough

~Noah Berlatsky




fire rainbows

behind polycarbonate

lanugo

~Joshua St. Claire




confounded by her bra clasps night sakura

~Joshua St. Claire




totality

the feel of it

in my goat feet

~Joshua St. Claire




sunset sky

walking home

together yet alone

~Nisha Raviprasad




soft breeze

dandelions cloud

my thoughts

~Nisha Raviprasad




daybreak

a quick swish

lost in the ripple

~Bette Murdoch Hopper




lorem ipsum


the forests

i have created


the forests

i cannot burn

~Tiffany Elise




dermatologist

interprets constellations

on my skin

~Anthony Lusardi




another time-out

her apple slices

turning brown

~Anthony Lusardi




bare pine tree

your bald head

looking smaller

~Anthony Lusardi




Holy Rolly


I now know that

Papal Pay Pal is

the Pontiff's way

to compensate us

via digital means.

~Charles A. Perrone




The New Baptist


fish sticks and blueberry wine

are how I get closer

to Him.

~Jacob Hatfield




orbital linings

of a pebble

my fatelines

~Tejendra Sherchan




After Chiya



hototogisu

hototogisu again

daylight again and

~Noah Berlatsky



so you crush moonlight


i too

fight the past tense

~Tiffany Elise