Morning of April 19, 2023


half-asleep

you visit the shrink

in fifty minutes

you emerge

half-awake

~Ruth Holzer



volcanic uplift a clean train

~Jerome Berglund



hiding what the scale says my fat furry slippers

~Ruth Holzer



Scandinavia chain of evidence

~Jerome Berglund



the long con tortoise shell glasses

~Jerome Berglund



yes the flea

had second thoughts about

biting her

yet in the end he bit

her on her end (the end)

~Roberta Beach Jacobson



before the wildflowers

i am only

a shadow

~Tiffany Shaw-Diaz



meme template

infinitely replicatable

hooded sweatshirt

~Jerome Berglund



cultural competence

a breeze blows

the trenchcoat open

~Kelly Moyer



and then i turned to him and said

listen to the highway

it sounds like death

~Tiffany Shaw-Diaz



I never thought

I'd be taking a little

yellow pill

on every occasion

but there it is

~Ruth Holzer



carrying memories

wrapped in a white sheet

the hearse car

~Debarati Sen



insomnia

I count

dead people

~Ruth Holzer


Evening of April 18, 2023


gym argument

we fail to work out

our differences

~Andrew Markowski



I want a wall

all I receive

is a beaded curtain

~Richard Bailly



dementia —

last summer was

twenty years ago

~Debarati Sen



swallowing my words a black hole

~Kimberly Kuchar



nightfall a conversation without speech

~Joseph P. Wechselberger



I (nuclear) solemnly (Armageddon) swear

~Lee Hudspeth



denied parole

an inmate breaks out

into tears

~Andrew Markowski


 

fossils

a final impression

fuels the end of time

~Robert Witmer



gun law

the right to bear

others’ pain

~Robert Witmer


Afternoon of April 14, 2023


 silverfish 925

~Roberta Beach Jacobson



komas wind unbending tension

~Roberta Beach Jacobson



longing for a patch of grass war rubble

~Mona Bedi



pike with tench zander

~Roberta Beach Jacobson



ice rink the old wound that starts to bleed

~Mona Bedi



under the peepal residence of the gods

~Mona Bedi



At the international space station

a six-month old baby launches spaghetti

with tomato sauce

to Cape Canaveral Florida.

~Robert Fleming



Autocracy

Cursor won’t be still, tells me

to nurse my cursed verses.

That heartless heartbeat!

~Allan Lake



Exam Stress

Heavy heart, deep breaths

Papers sprawled across my desk.

~Tabish Iqbal



Birds migrate freely

over human imposed borders,

observed by ardent birders

on their route,

don’t need to show papers

~Peter A. Witt

 

 

finding myself google maps

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 


bonsai

she wields the scissors

with the finesse of a surgeon

~Ram Chandran



orange sunset

my granddaughter

asks me

why everything

has to end

~Mona Bedi


Afternoon of April 13, 2023


estate sale:

a poem

with every possum

~Kelly Moyer



signal drops

wolfman hits the keys

harder

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel



8 Bayshore

There's a photo of us on somebody's phone

where we're standing together all on our own

and I absolutely love it because your eyes are closed

you’re not sleeping or blinking, you’re just eyes closed

don’t ask me why, I just adore it more

I never wonder what you’re looking at or what you’re thinking

I know you’re in there

and for today, that’s enough for me

~Christian Garduno



spring rain dancing across the pelvic floor

~John Hawkhead



gun shot down in one

~John Hawkhead



There was a time I would have said

That’s impossible!”

But now I know

it doesn’t matter that much.

~Noah Berlatsky



I've seen coral bleached

birds die in the air

trees burst into flames

fish float bloated -

I hope this is a dream

~Steve Van Allen



lost innocence

the shortcake

free of its scent

~Kelly Moyer



Things that make me smile:

Random acts of kindness

A baby’s wave

~Jennifer Gurney



jailbreak the sparrow in your rearview mirror

~Kelly Moyer



wishbones playing chicken til our luck runs out

~Kelly Moyer



alley

three unkempt men take turns biting

a chocolate bunny

~John J. Dunphy

 

 

The movie ends

and we go back

to dark

without a plot.

~Noah Berlatsky