Afternoon of August 17, 2025

 

rooster crows

at noon...

the globe spins

~Kavita Ratna

clay models

of herbivores and carnivores

living in harmony

~Tejendra Sherchan

hot road

the dancing beard of a

goat

~Kavita Ratna

alas, words were exchanged - 

some heard, some unheard, 

some understood, others not so much

but, each damned

       each piercing 

       each more condemned than the other... 

 

        wedding vows were exchanged 

~Allen David Simon

cemetery visit . . .

the cell reception

lives on

~Barrie Levine

broken Barbie

both of us in need of

knee replacements

~Barrie Levine

Hoover

Can be a noun

and a verb.

Wound & vac are

two words that

should never be

side by side.

Troubleshooting

that machine

is trouble.

Dam!

~Keith Snow

World of dewdrops

Wrap around geraniums

Surviving cold

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Put me down

In history

People are stranger

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

This room

Full of empty space

I need to be loud

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Down we go

Alice

Seasons change

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Overdue Notice

Your final embrace was due January first. You

have missed several terms already. The cost

goes up each year, and standard interest

rates apply. The sooner you comply

with outstretched arms, the more

forgiveness you will merit.

Do not tarry, for death

will not settle.

~Carol Barret

Discovery

I approach through a tunnel of Lodgepole Pine, needles

underfoot. As I climb the last dune before sea grass

disappears, the ocean turns up the volume. I see

miles north and south. A dog trots alongside a red truck.

Another leads his master’s yellow van, almost pulling it

through sand and broken shells, eager to elongate the sun.

Few walkers about. One bent man in a dark hood

carries a blue bag, pokes his stick with each stride.

He does not scan the waves, but stops to assess

a rib of driftwood, as if yearning for a lost child.

~Carol Barret

my gel pen

stays silent

drought

~Shasta Hatter

new spice mix

at the supermarket

a small adventure

~Shasta Hatter

We can't fix a car

with a hammer or obtain

Peace by making war

~Sasha Clark

I love to express

myself in the dancing words

of poetry song

~Sasha Clark

physicists say

ninety six percent

of universe is made up of

something we don't know

maybe it's love

~Tejendra Sherchan

a cosmogony wherein

the hit-and-run driver always returns

to Vogdes Street

~Patrick Sweeney

so far off topic

that neither one of us knew what

we were originally discussing

~Patrick Sweeney

sorry I'm late,

missed an eyelet

had to relace

~Patrick Sweeney

her passing clouds stop

~John Hawkhead

every hand raised but mine

~Patrick Sweeney

(g)hostess with the mostess

~Barrie Levine

the rayed arc of Friday night

--71 movies in progress and eleven unread tomes in the Western canon

~Patrick Sweeney

body popping a blister pack of blows

~John Hawkhead

at the Nimitz Library

it just got easier for cadets to avoid reading

about the Holocaust

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

Morning of August 16, 2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

separating slices of cheese from the paper… will they miss each other

~Maya Daneva

slippery politicians the art of the eel

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

 

 

our dilemma his horns

~dan smith

cosmography already I feel lost

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

writing

without seeing what I’m writing

dark night

~Maya Daneva

yards of net

a satin bodice

those fishnet tights -

the scratchiness

of my first tutu

~Penny Lowery

safe underground now -

your ashes

and those of your dog

~Penny Lowery

a sudden wetness

the puppy rolls her tongue

around my toes

~Jackie Chou

in the wildfire haze

trees look like they are

trying to leave

~tom blessing

Dinner Plans

 

a cuttlefish

disguised as a hermit crab

meets

a cuttlefish

disguised as a hermit crab

~Kimberly Kuchar

intergalactic fugitive

light escapes from

a black hole

~John J. Dunphy

Too Many Choices

should I pray to

God?

Jesus?

the Blessed Virgin Mary?

one of the saints?

I decide on

"To Whom It May Concern"

~John J. Dunphy

the stray looks back

tail tucked, eyes hopeful

freezing rain

~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky

Trapped by cats on lap my thoughts must natter—

which of these two cats must be the cat-ter?

~Noah Berlatsky

pouring kibble

into the metal bowl

"I want some"

the stray cat says

with her peridot eyes

~Jackie Chou

somewhere it's vernal

where there's no orange blight

and our days aren't numbered

~dan smith

day and night

he says

he's the one

and you're not

~dan smith

 

 

Afternoon of August 11, 2025

 

exposition boulevard

pick a fight

and you'll hear some truth

~Jerome Berglund

proxy server

stars and stripes on

the fire hydrant

~Jerome Berglund

smoke detector

warm to the touch

friendly fire

~Jerome Berglund

approachable

the paradox or irony

to a basket muzzle

~Jerome Berglund

summer vacation —

traveling around

hospitals

~Maurizio Brancaleoni

Door unlocked

But the key

Is rusty

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Hemlock is not poisonous

Hemlock is not poisonous.

Yet if you drink it and die,

you are responsible.

Does it tell you to drink?

~Partha Sarkar

I suffocate

I cannot see the trees, the birds and other winged angels.

After sunset I suffocate.

~Partha Sarkar

Don’t think of it as

talking to a friend.

Think of it as

building your brand.

~Noah Berlatsky

World economic relationship

Billabong.

Billboard.

Billets-doux.

Yet no billhead.

Then billingsgate,

billhook and

Billy goat is retrenched.

~Partha Sarkar

feeding time

a little black bug

for the Venus Flytrap

~Ruth Holzer

my father's only suit

looking sharp on

a thrift store mannequin

~John J, Dunphy

seashore

the heavy bucket

of adult sand…

~Sharon Ferrante

burning my finger

doing a spell

with dragon’s blood

~Sharon Ferrante

retirement living off the fruits of war

~Ruth Holzer

quid GoPro

~Jerome Berglund

down by the river migrants fishing for supper

~Ruth Holzer

the business of this world not my circus

~Ruth Holzer

so a man walks into a b AR-5. . .

~Ruth Holzer

 

 

 Our store is open: https://www.zazzle.com/store/five_fleas

 

Morning of August 9, 2025

 

another whiskey . . .

let the truth

come out

~Oscar Luparia

so many

tin foil hats

this year

~dan smith

only the word apple ripens no orchards

~Vijay Prasad

precisely, fireflies are irradiant insects.

~Gretchen VanOstrand

exploding anger volcanic eruptions

~Tejendra Sherchan

nodding as he tonsures his lawn

~Helen Buckingham

kids in Trump masks

parents in Maga caps

extortion 101

~dan smith

bomb

bomb

bomb

satellite of blood

(after Lou Reed)

~Helen Buckingham

bombings

(very) old poems

seem so new

they were asleep during that time

I didn't know, they say

~Marie Derley

night journey

little insects die

on the windscreen

how many of our dreams

die when the day dawns

~Marie Derley

Teapot shakes

In sunlit hands

Of the morning

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Haunting eyes

Look up from black lace

Unmasking the moon

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

the air feels

like a warm bath

inside the sky

~Jennifer Gurney

I catch a whiff of BBQ

and miss you so much it hurts

right in the rib eye

~Jennifer Gurney

beautiful

as long as

he's just

in three-quarter

profile

~Nicholas De Marino

No matter how much plastic piles up

a planet will never twinkle.

~Nicholas De Marino

green brocade trifle

and lavender taffeta affidavit

~Nicholas De Marino

 

Afternoon of August 7, 2025

 

 

The last book my dad read

was a biography of Neville Chamberlain.

I wish he’d finished it.

I wish he hadn’t finished.

~Noah Berlatsky

running my finger

on old dents

strawberry moon

~Jiel Narvekar

summer vacation

spending time

with the dentist

~Patricia Carragon

water under the bridge

          being swept away

by the flood

~John J. Dunphy

summer haze

a concealed coot

finds its way

~Gareth Nurden

reflections

filling a lido

summer sun

~Gareth Nurden

in the garden

the rose bush explodes with life

your last words to me

~Jennifer Gurney

closet space

full of your absence

~Anne Fox

in other people’s windows         

a glimpse

of myself

~Anne Fox

the self-help manual

all out of ink

autumn drizzle

~Joanna Ashwell

puddle rainbows another splash back to Kansas

~Joanna Ashwell

another month the hostages still not home

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

alter ego i get sucked into a black hole

~Mona Bedi

into the afterlife a shaman’s promise

~Mona Bedi

tv news some hostages we know by name

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

saturn that parent who mixes up his kids' names

~Martina Matijević

2 hours

up the gravel road

lost

in the right direction

~Belinda Behne

as society

crashes around us

smh

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Pin the tail

On the donkey

My back patch

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

infinite regress

she takes a selfie

with the Mona Lisa

~Joshua St. Claire

corporate training

the meticulously made materials

I’ll never look at again

~Joshua St. Claire

we all have

a tragic backstory

indigo plums

~Joshua St. Claire