Afternoon of August 12, 2023

compost to compost, the forgotten zucchini

~Voima Oy

campaign up and running away with the circus

~John Hawkhead

Just two old ladies

talking about baggy jeans with pockets,

and the days of black lace demi bras

~Voima Oy

cost of machinery

heartland farmers

giving up

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

The men in hazmat suits say it's safe to go back home.

~Voima Oy

We're all falling apart, she said.

Still, I feed the stray cats.

~Voima Oy

supermoon

so tiny

in my cell phone photo

~John J. Dunphy

good neighborliness —

death threats and verbal abuse

in front of my door

~Maurizio Brancaleoni

rogue state to get ourselves into

~John Hawkhead

social

engineering

into

class

systems

~John Hawkhead

new poem

some renovation

required

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

apple pie chart of inequalities

~John Hawkhead

last but not least 99.9% of us

~John Hawkhead

Evening of August 9, 2023

 

 

galvanized the clang of my discarded mind

~Kelly Moyer

signing two wills long live the fight

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

grave sighting footprints in dew time

~Robert Witmer

once you’re toast no need for a toaster

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

our love song etched into the sparrow’s bones

~Kelly Moyer

time levels quicksandpaper

~Robert Witmer

uncaged i peck at the empty shell of my youth

~Kelly Moyer

scrambling our pain naughty whisk

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

another birthday candle wax and wane

~Robert Witmer

summer love befriending the fruit flies

~Kelly Moyer

spring war front

the soldier's heart retreating

to his fiancée

~Bipasha Majumder (De)

day in

day out

it grows

~Robert Witmer

crossing the border . . .

two coffined hands come out

to embrace me

~Bipasha Majumder (De)

Outside

 

The vine twines on the fence,

my eye twines round the vine.

Some buzzing thing goes twining

through the flowers and the vine.

 

Some part of me is twining,

like a bee among the vines.

The wind slides through the fence.

I think, and there's the vine.

~Noah Berlatsky

climate change

clinging to hope

shadows on a vine

~Robert Witmer

udder certainty

the milk of human kindness

in a stainless steel pail

~Robert Witmer

hitchhiker

his thumb pointed at

the night sky

~John J. Dunphy

Afternoon of August 9, 2023

 

at the mercy

of capricious gods:

a ship of fools

~Jerome Berglund

pie-eyed Dorothy Parker drags her broken-legged zebras on a rainy leash

~Patrick Sweeney

Fleas and Lice

with a nod to Robert Frost

Some say the world will succumb to fleas.

Some say lice.

From what I know of desire and "itchies",

I hold with those who favor fleas!

But if I had to think and scratch twice,

I think I know enough of infestations

to say that lice also work nice...

and will suffice

...especially on old farm cats.

~Thomas A. Thrun

Brief Bio - COVID

Hard-wired to 

   know no boundaries,

   have no filter,

   honor no relationship,

   keep no curfews, and have no friends.

Thus, enviable.   In the Land of Virion, 

   the green-eyed monster is alive and well.

~Suzanne S. Austin-Hill

another wedding invitation

— seven year itch

~Wanda Amos

as I turn my thoughts to faraway things, she wants me to do something about the wasps

~Patrick Sweeney

still some way off the mountain improvising buddha jazz

~Herb Tate

she thinks Othello overreacted

~Patrick Sweeney

eyes wide open   the bedwetter's first sleep-over

~Patrick Sweeney

listening to mother’s knitting unravelling grandmother’s pearls

~Herb Tate

stealing

through a crack in the door

another moment

stolen

~Herb Tate

obsolete part


good for nothing

in latest model

~Jerome Berglund

blue morning

I steal a ring

from Saturn

~Sharon Ferrante

El Diablo

last orders

barflies sticky drinking

mixing feet

~Herb Tate

his last request—

dusting the dust off

Ashes to Ashes

~Herb Tate

mild enough

to catch hell

tax brackets

~Jerome Berglund

mistle thrush

seeds in the air

of Christmas kisses

~Herb Tate

Christmas carolers outside my door

I give them a $20 bill

to stop singing

~John J. Dunphy

city—

never a lonely

pigeon

~Sharon Ferrante

highlight of my formal education

playing Wipe Out

on my desk

~Patrick Sweeney 

 

Morning of August 9, 2023

 

 

P

H

O

T

o

S

y

N

t

H

e

s

i

S

~William Bain

down the line

F-16s bow

in holy worship

~Richard Magahiz

twenty paces behind walks a moon

~Richard Magahiz

sisyphus reveling in the fragrance of my litter box

~Jean-Paul Moyer

online storefront    twelve attractively priced skulls

~Richard Magahiz

Even the fleas hunkered down in the shade today

~Julie A. Dickson

under

quasarlight

neutrino

hatchlings

quarrel

~Richard Magahiz

cheese puffs

our illusions dissolve

in the downpour

~Jean-Paul Moyer

chicken livers what's poppin' at the peep show

~Jean-Paul Moyer

peepholes in my teeth      for the Demiurge

~Richard Magahiz

 

Afternoon of August 7, 2023

Borne

my mother and father are aliens

their skin not green but

dirt ridden

not of your land

the land of the free

~Sandy Ruiz

Soul Ties

My first love forgot to tell me

to let go and move on.

~Sandy Ruiz

Mother’s Day

the hibiscus

never forgets

~Randy Brooks

mailed from prison

a hand-drawn birthday card from

the father she's never met

~John J. Dunphy

serif the abyss at the nib of god’s fountain pen

~Jean-Paul Moyer

mussel remains on shore empty parentheses

~Randy Brooks

wily my sister’s busted whisker

~Jean-Paul Moyer

In the Future

There may be

remote controlled razors

but you will still have to get

off the couch and go to store

for new batteries!

~Keith Snow

There are two problems with poetry readings.

First, you have to listen to other people.

Second, they have to listen to you.

~Noah Berlatsky

the only thing to

eclipse a Taylor Swift concert –

the Barbie movie

~Jennifer Gurney

Attachment Dysphoria

My ex-boyfriend introduced me to his close friends,

Bipolar disorder, suicide, and depression.

At the time,

I did not know how contagious they were.

~Sandy Ruiz

swarming

the queen bee

apocalypse

~C.X. Turner