Afternoon of June 12, 2024

 

The Insomniac

~Kelly Moyer

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 on 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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