Afternoon of August 18, 2023

 

summer shedding

about to sweep up

half a cat

~Eavonka Ettinger

heatwave

backyard tree

rains a squirrel

~tom blessing

itchy indictment . . .

accepting a flea deal

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

chorus frogs

waiting in the wings

for their big break

~Eavonka Ettinger

nothing profound

in her words

yet she continues

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

insured elder

riddled with ailments

the perfect patient

~Christa Pandey

she told me

i need to get my butt

out of my head

years later i am still

working on that

~tom blessing

summer outhouse

most unfortunate

mosquito bite

~Eavonka Ettinger

winter quilt our patchwork of state laws

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Who would have thought

the telephone would disappear

before the telephone pole?

~Noah Berlatsky

Afternoon of August 15, 2023

empty canteen

the buzzards

circle

~Jenn Ryan-Jauregui

disturbing my slumber friends in the volcano

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

lone golfer

his hole-in-one witnessed by

a squirrel

~John J. Dunphy

Thoughts on Art

Everyone likes to share theirs

with the world.

How it's not like it used to be,

how most of it isn't real,

how it's all mainstream now,

and nobody even knows

what any of it means.

But I'd prefer to be making art

instead of just talking about it.

~Gabriel Bates

drought the stream never reaches my soul

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

for the always was and always will be   press 1

 

for faces seen in the cassia tree   press 2

for baby-lip burbling   press 3

for transcendental walks around the block   press 4

for those who let well enough alone   press 5

for the epiphanies in an ordinary day   press 6

for decisive encounters with the fabric of destiny   press 7

for grandmom's repetitious wisdom   press 8

for placing yourself in the custody of a dream   press 9

to speak to a customer service representative   don't press your luck

~Patrick Sweeney

 

Afternoon of August 13, 2023

pointed finger gun control

~petro c. k.

school days caskets getting smaller

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

brazen art student

no place in the galaxy

he won’t dip his brush

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

one day I'd like to

write the lyrics to a song

that I hear you sing

~Jennifer Gurney

I love every shade

of the color purple —

indigo to periwinkle

~Jennifer Gurney

good news . . .

two colorful cysts removed

bad news: his green eyes

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

one cow tablet

dropped in water . . .

hiefervescence

~petro c. k.

every summer

I make strawberry jam

only for you

~Jennifer Gurney

stations of the cross

don't touch that dial

~petro c. k.

after the sermon a few new sins

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

as my last will

and testament I leave this

messed up earth, sorry

~petro c. k.

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