Afternoon of October 11, 2023

 

like weird barbie

i break

into my better self

~Kelly Moyer

they can cope

"be yourself,"

they say,

and then when

you become;

"oh no, not like that."

but i like me,

so they can cope.

~linda m. crate

Type 4

I follow my heart,

taking every chance

for the sake of love,

only to end up

like a plump

Costco chicken,

falling flat on my face.

~Kelly Moyer

being in an all-girl band  I bet they hate us

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

death poem I recycle myself

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

whirligigs basking in the shade of annihilation

~Kelly Moyer

knowledge & swords

they don't like girls

who look for

knowledge and swords,

but i found them

anyway;

because i found those

people boring.

~linda m. crate

coming into focus—

my gaze adjusts forward

20-20 hindsight

~Jennifer Gurney

french onion

a dip

in the road

~Kelly Moyer

Afternoon of October 7, 2023

 

I think she likes me,

that red

hippoceratops

~Richard Magahiz

letting go

and giving in…

best decision ever

~Jennifer Gurney

recollections

all of them true

to our own

~Mike Gallagher

separating

our albums was the hardest part

of moving out

~Jennifer Gurney

his bank account

so many zeros

never enough

~Mike Fainzilber

impulse (out of) control

~Lee Hudspeth

adapted neuroclaws twelve hours below crush depth

~Richard Magahiz

increased thirst for darkness all hallows' eve

~C.X. Turner

mindfulness and then the crosswalk

~Lee Hudspeth

Red Sky. The birds went south. People flew into the abyss

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

are you listening to me       crickets

~Lee Hudspeth

nettle tea...

misunderstood

again

~C.X. Turner

Coyote vs. Roadrunner

 

………………………….. ||||||||||

…….****_____*****

||

~Noah Berlatsky

the never-ending

legs of a spider

autumn ledge

~C.X. Turner

ashes on the wind

the new normal

book burnings

~Mike Fainzilber

Why a Big Heart

Everyone said she had a big heart,

with smile and hands to welcome.

She didn’t expect to need a big heart

cause he had big feet to stomp on it.

~Nolcha Fox

torn faces

litter

torn tracks

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Dreginald)

caution

cemetery

ahead

~James Penha

(Found on a road sign in upstate New York)

sea bottom:

steel bathyscaphes

filled with salad oil

~Richard Magahiz

Evening of October 6, 2023

  

 

 if ever I sit

beside calm waters

surely

this flying beetle

will smack my face

~Sharon Ferrante

Growing Pains

I laid down in the grass today,

but it wasn't the same

as it used to be

when I was a kid.

I couldn't sense the Earth

spinning beneath me

or imagine anything magical

beyond the flat sky.

It just felt like I was waiting

for the worms to take me.

~Gabriel Bates

Minutes

evil thoughts

tall shadow on a

detached garage

 

Mildly schnockered ranting with adorable senior neighbors never in my lifetime would I ever

have thought I’d hear these old conservative white people decrying: “My God, they

shouldn’t do that!”

 

Indeed!

That’s all we

were ever saying!

~Jerome Berglund

eight years old

investing all my money

in sea-monkeys

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Brook Lint

 

six degrees of pancetta :: ombudsperson

 

Long Island entire and enough

 

by Asclepius I swear – bread and multiplication tables

 

beyond rye the fool’s journey

 

candlelight vigil :: ownership of thunder

~Jerome Berglund

in the beginning

I’m the breath

of a dinosaur

~Sharon Ferrante

Insurgents

prehistoric shield bugs

slip through the chinks

~JL Huffman

Apostate

 

Learn today that most tire places are closed on Sundays this I must question as people get

flats on that day as often as any we’d rather be praying and resting too assure you but

vehicles must be made drivable.

 

the manager smashes

one dish after another –

everyone cheers!

~Jerome Berglund

poets say

they can read minds

I wonder

could I put words

to your screams

~Sharon Ferrante

Fruit Pies

 

mostly garbage dog food begat begat begat

 

Owatonna best budget inn

 

moon past a chimney forced perspective

 

the prologues to epaulettes

 

writing with motion a migrant

~Jerome Berglund

your thoughts and my thoughts

appear simultaneously

moonlight

~Nani Mariani

lobotomy

 

morning sunlight’s golden honey drizzled decadently, so abundant even Venetian blinds’

shadows can look promising in such a light graham crackers and candy corn sandbars with

exposed shoulders girl with lilies by Rivera every speck of dust and scratch on the table

glass comes into startling clarity

 

pine cones decompose

the crack has gotten

wide and green

~Jerome Berglund