Afternoon of March 25, 2023


a tailor

hanging by a thread

gets the scissors

~Eavonka Ettinger



sky shepherd

tends her fluffy clouds

the sun beams

~Eavonka Ettinger



world war III

avoiding my fear with

serial killer shows

~Eavonka Ettinger



mom finally

learns to text

lpbr you teo’

~Eavonka Ettinger



I am still waiting – 

for the Undercover Boss edition 

when Jesus shows up incognito 

in one of those self-righteous 

racist, sexist, homophobic 

evangelical churches 

and fires everyone. 

~ Todd Matson 



a prayer for the eight-legged soul of the spider

~Patrick Sweeney



barefoot on the sharp stones of my hosannas

~Patrick Sweeney



object permanence

the peek-a-boo

of old age

~Patrick Sweeney



I'm the foreigner coughing on the crowded train

~Patrick Sweeney



maybe the trees have their own names for each other

~Patrick Sweeney




traveling light –

a suitcase

full of dreams

~Bonnie J Scherer



baggage carousel …

picking up

where we left off

~Bonnie J Scherer

Afternoon of March 24, 2023


Reason for Being


Your mittens are empty.

Oh, how they carry on 

in their desire 

for something (anything)

to give them purpose! 


So,

you fill them with pudding

(perhaps butterscotch),

and they believe they are

happy for a time.

~Kelly Moyer



sea shells sold by the sea shore—

late-stage capitalism

~petro c.k.



noon forever old VCR

~petro c.k.



midnight with eyes cat

~Roberta Beach Jacobson



draw the curtains

color the windows

with the clear crayon

~petro c.k.



faux fur

lying

around the neck

why choose

false rumors

cover

truth

all that is fake

is not

real

~Julie A. Dickson



Help Yourself to Another!


Futility is a chip

of the highest-quality

chocolate, baked

into a thin disc

of delusion

for your masticatory

pleasure, an expression

of the aggression

that drives 

each moment

of your unfortunate life.

~Kelly Moyer



Seedless


Forgive the woman

inside the watermelon.

How could she have

known

you were allergic

to the salt of her tears?

~Kelly Moyer



Ambi-Ants


Do you feel the way they open themselves 

to the music of the cosmos? 


How effortlessly they transform toil 

into surrender?


There is no hill.

       Only sanctuary.

~Kelly Moyer



blue jay flying off

in its feathers

a piece of sky

~Daniel Birnbaum



under the umbrella

her lips at reach

almost

~Daniel Birnbaum



people in the street

what do we have in common,

we can talk about

~Daniel Birnbaum

Evening of March 21, 2023

Libelous


The summer Sky told

the local newspaper

that she is my sister,

but I don’t eat

grapes for breakfast.


And, I’ve never been

anything . . .

akin to a proper noun.

~Kelly Moyer



Right on the Tip


No language is quick enough

to save a murdered thought—

you know how your word

dangles bleeding from a pole

when you need it in your jaws,

when you need it to be heard.

You have no way to get it

once it’s gone, no way

to pronounce it out loud

once it’s down and gone.

~Will Reger



writing


create, invent, make it

a little bent; real

but not too real,

fun but not humorous,

jokey but

serious

too

~Wayne F. Burke



fog 

trying to read my wife's 

handwriting 

~Devoshruti Mandal



At the Picnic

A bug is crawling down my neck 

With clicking claws and spikey beard. 

I must curtail its frenzied trek 

A bug is crawling down my neck.  

I jump and shout. How could a speck 

Of protein make me feel so weird? 

A bug is crawling down my neck 

With clicking claws and spikey beard. 

~LaVern Spencer McCarthy



wrestling the symphony of fingers and strings on a harp

~Devoshruti Mandal



the car

that blocks the ambulance

seeing red

~Bisshie



old prune juice

clearing the cupboards

and myself

~Patricia Hawkhead



black ink scribbles

deciphering the secrets

in his shadow

~Patricia Hawkhead



passengers of the wind

some almond petals

on the balcony

~Franรงoise Maurice



In Vain

Flies like fresh fruit, though past their best,

blood orange, rotten to the core;

yet fleas for flesh, as mashed in mess,

drinking vessels, capillaries,

their platelet dish, corpuscle quiz.

Old fools’ gold from prospectors’ hunch,

in vein, a seam of red from blue.

as stake their claim, rare, bloody hue.

Are chips laid down, accompanied,

salt in the wound to irritate?

~Stephen Kingsnorth



Pizza crumbs

From last night’s dinner with you

Memories

~Jennifer Gurney

Morning of March 21, 2023

hencluck laidegg

~J. D. Nelson




chickenspring

~J. D. Nelson



morning glory a biscuit named bartholomew

~Kelly Moyer



feet first every time a tuesday falls

~Kelly Moyer



Sure to Meet

After Ko Un

 

My ear fell off

and went to the land of the dead.

Now I am listening listening listening.

I hear the dead they say,

We hear you.

Let us in.

~Noah Berlatsky



The sky is a bucket, the sun is a leak of light.

The night is awash in galaxies made of burning suns.

Below, my piccolo speaks butterfly. 

~Will Reger



first spring hike

the baby reaches

for the sunlight

~Wai Mei Wong