Afternoon of January 8, 2023

navigational error the body dropped into the bomb

~Elancharan Gunasekaran

acclimate the soul to the cold concrete frequency

~Elancharan Gunasekaran

snail at the edge of the world borrowing borrowed time

~Elancharan Gunasekaran

self-exploration

not everything

is about you

~B. L. Bruce

winter moon —

the paperweight on

dad's tax return

~Daipayan Nair

epiphany

the Christmas carols

stored in the attic

~Françoise Maurice

first of January—

the year’s joys like rain

down the storm drain

~B. L. Bruce

bird of paradise

I too am flightless

winter sorrows

~B. L. Bruce

whale pods wading through the industrial smog space

~Elancharan Gunasekaran

under the snowman's hat the water rabbit

~Mircea Moldovan

synaptic systems flooded with pale ale data

~Elancharan Gunasekaran

winter sun i waited too long for ice cream

~Nani Mariani

the machine god smiles upon his brethren of chipped brains

~Elancharan Gunasekaran

scry frostbitten limbs for signs of the seventh sun

~Elancharan Gunasekaran

Morning of January 7, 2023

vote for me

cherry blossoms

will bloom forever

~petro c.k.

scorched field

a crow pecking

the scarecrow's head

~Mirela Brăilean

where the womb cracked uranium glass

~Kelly Moyer

all the questions unanswered chatbot

~petro c.k.

clean sheets

the fresh scent

of abandonment

~Kelly Moyer

coloured pebbles —

all that's left

in the fishbowl

~Daipayan Nair

maternal longing

reflected

in the apple skin

~Kelly Moyer

cocoon

the butterfly

I’ll never be

~Mirela Brăilean

night rain

the essence

of discarded poems

~Kelly Moyer

Evening of January 3, 2023

 

whether we like it

or not

the new year

~John Pappas

death poem

could have been

an email

~Mariel Herbert

Tomorrow arrived early

and left quietly

when no one was watching.

~Doug Forrest

final bargain —

a cracked egg

in the carton


~Daipayan Nair

birdwatching

thinking of the few friends

he has

~Daniel Birnbaum

suitcase

leaving the country

without him

~Lisa C Reynolds

a bloody sunset

consumes

the dog day heat

as a day lily

folds into itself

~Wanda Amos

new world

most graves

unmarked

~John Pappas

this storm threatens

to blow the whole island

away


~James Penha

winter solitude—

under paper lantern

drawing zen enso

~Ram Chandran

audiobook

choosing to drive

over plot holes

~Mariel Herbert

crashing football helmets heals hearts


~Robert Fleming

where you slept midnight divided by zero

~John Pappas

that rhyme for which there is no reason

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

tiptoeing through glass shards my childhood

 ~Reid Hepworth

if you lived in Privilege you’d be home now

~Robert Fleming

slipping into the ocean a woman made of rain


~John Pappas

Evening of December 31, 2022

seasonal affective disorder

the fresh cut flowers

are dead to me

~Kerry J Heckman

they burnt the candle

at both ends

and melt in the middle

~Linda L Ludwig

food stalls

award-winning chefs

get drunk

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

drowning

in their element

aquarium trolls

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

when golden arms

thaw frozen bones

stones set sail

~C.F. Tash

twinkle

tiny stars

eyeing us

with their state of the art

semaJ telescope

gathering data

snapping photos

of man's undoing

archived as

fallen stars

~Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo

keep

your second line longer

if you can

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

i am the diamond

the coal you threw away once

this city of mines

~Aftab Yusuf Shaikh