Evening of February 6, 2024

 

epics written and abandoned, finely chopping garlic

~Patrick Sweeney

I've drastically underestimated my own fanaticism

~Patrick Sweeney

sentience poking at the tender spot

~Kelly Moyer

the widowhood of spiders at lunch

~Patrick Sweeney

pellets of sleet on the balding ex-manager's clean scalp

~Patrick Sweeney

fake and yet the shimmer of her death

~Kelly Moyer

cutting

deeper than we should

rusty knife

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

my pal digs deep

knows I deserve the full

six feet

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

 

the sailor

returns unexpectedly

storm surge

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Grief may come

for some in waves.

Mine comes with a

baseball bat.

It hits my head

out of the park,

then runs for

home plate.

~Nolcha Fox

Poetica

If a poem falls

onto a page


and no one reads it,

 
does it make

a sound?

~Steven Bruce

the principles

we champion

hotel breakfast

~Kelly Moyer

downsizing my wardrobe

a mini skirt reminds me

I have up sized

~Wanda Amos

 

still wind, this chaos in my

memory stirs

the moonlight

~Debarati Sen

 

shooting for the stars

child points his new .22 at

the night sky

~John J. Dunphy

 

 

Midnight Verse XXI



Why fret existential thunders

when all we are is a fleeting dream

between two slumbers.

~Steven Bruce

Morning of February 4, 2024

in this neat suburb

where residents conform

the sudden hubbub

when a ring of toadstools

bursts out of the lawn

~Keith Evetts

community sounds nice in theory

~Noah Berlatsky

A Creator’s Wish

Down on me the universe presses

into the microverse I release my stresses.

Planning new lands

with cerulean sands.

As I sit on a boulder,

my imagination a-smolder.

Would that I could create

something, which could luxuriate

and remain till the world’s bygone

like this boulder I sit upon.

~Bernardo Villela

this way daily passing on

~Keith Evetts

once it was real childhood

~Keith Evetts

kingfisher the useless words

~Keith Evetts

Shadowed

I don’t know why that dark reflection

likes to stick to my feet.

Maybe it was the gum I stepped in yesterday.

~Nolcha Fox

A circular copse

Of denuded trees engaged

In pagan rites

~Bernardo Villela

chipped nail paint —

mom’s guitar lessons

in full swing

~Debarati Sen

paradoxical insomnia

nursing

the misogynist's monkey

~Kelly Moyer

stone's throw

a roadtrip

to the afterlife

~Kelly Moyer

Evening of January 30, 2024

that good stretch —

outside your comfort zone

but not too far

~Jennifer Gurney

sifting through cast offs—

I find treasures

from your discards

~Jennifer Gurney

Sardonic quips;

Laughter is Sirius

At the full eclipse.

~David Mitchell

Wounds

when commanded to stop the tirade

told he is a monster

he lies down to nap

curled up like a small child

~MarthaEllenJohnson

Non-viable

Non-viable. She bled out in the parking lot.

“Women always get the short end of the stick.”

~MarthaEllenJohnson

Poseur

Poseur. He lectures.

Points to a painting.

“The claustrophobia of life.”

He glances at me.

Knows I know.

Hates me more.

~MarthaEllenJohnson

Nobody will come

Nobody's coming back

Nobody will rise again

There's not enough air for anyone

No one has enough love

~Mykyta Ryzhyk

(Originally published in Ice Floe Press)

this poem

will not be written

by anyone because the author

will go to the supermarket for vodka

 

and never come back

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Tipton Poetry Journal)

mom sews a vagina for her daughter like a red rag for tears

mom wants soldiers to give flowers to her daughters

the cemetery is silent about flowers

daughter collects khaki and throws it into the toilet

daughter screams that she does not need such flowers

graves are silent about the dead

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Rat's Ass Review)

An old woman views

a woodblock printing and sighs

to think of the past.

~Keech Ballard

childhood memory —

filling in the blanks

left by snowflakes

~Ana Drobot

fingers in machine / lack of care will lead to bad / damaged rings

~Charles A. Perrone

Guard Dog with a Mind of Winter


The boy rolls snow

into the shape of the puppy

he lost.

~Cheryl Snell

Arty Party


The butler took our coats.

Then he took our clothes.

I kept my stilettos on.

~Cheryl Snell

You Asked for It

Elvis replicates himself

while performing Hound Dog,

outnumbering the audience

baying at the moon’s hologram.

~Cheryl Snell

Afternoon of January 30, 2024

pillow talk

smoothing the hem

of the truffle pig's nightie

~Kelly Moyer

box graters shredding my shot at motherhood

~Kelly Moyer

sleep deprivation

a game

of chicken and walrus

~Kelly Moyer

Deep Blue Now With AI Ponders

Garry

Garry

Garry

~dan smith

Groundhog Day

without a shadow

my sundial

~John J. Dunphy

plus an arrow to their zero

~John Hawkhead

shedding tears of salt on the ice road

~John Hawkhead

nursery ward baby's first barcode

~Keith Evetts

dog plays piano disjunctive haiku

~Keith Evetts

 

 

nightingale hole in the heart

~Keith Evetts

we enjoy

the best catastrophes

on the latest 4K screen

~Keith Evetts

Afternoon of January 29, 2024

finding the edge

of a flat earth

falling falling

~Kathy Watts

in his smile

the glint of a fang—

another wolf

~Kimberly Kucar

her red hood . . .

you can hardly see

the blood

~Kimberly Kucar

gene the green we’re swimming

~J. D. Nelson

ouchminster brady a pair of socks

~J. D. Nelson

the odor of dollar bills you were in my dream

~J. D. Nelson

I’m not in the dream the day I seem to be

~J. D. Nelson

punctuation

 

I use parentheses

to prevent my words from spilling over

~Marie Derley

can't play it

can't sell it--

the old silver flute

~Ruth Holzer

carry on

with your temper tantrum

I'll lie here

in my room in the dark

and think of my dead lovers

~Ruth Holzer

Sand

 

The prophet went walking.

The walking broke in half.

The halves become a chrysalis.

The chrysalis eats the dead.

The dead run down like red clocks.

The red clocks open the rain.

Rain bleeds a prophet.

It is walking on meaning like sand.

~Noah Berlatsky

trimming trees

she lops off

his fingers

~Nancy Brady

graveyard extension —

now you can die as many

times as you like

~Maurizio Brancaleoni

Evening of January 24, 2024

collecting snowflakes

with almost no effort

tuba

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

bleak midwinter–

longest stretch outside

mailrun

~Jennifer Gurney

watching my breath freeze

hanging in midair

I wait for the bus

~Jennifer Gurney

photo album

proof we were once

a family

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Rapunzel’s faux pas

using harsh conditioners

she lets her hair down

~John H. Dromey

About Dinosaurs

What joy! What happiness!

While my grandchildren play

And dream about dinosaurs

I, at their innocent age

Played with El Jabato comics.

~Daniel de Culla

nowhere feels safe

if somebody can shoot

the president

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Gödel, man, go

Tarski and such

play Peano

their set

merely theory.

The audience goes wild

judging it to be

sufficiently axiomatized

however incomplete.

~dan smith

a sad clerk making sense in the dollar store

~Robert Witmer

rubber soul

a long playing record

left to skip

~Robert Witmer

the conspiracist

goes fishing

a can of worms

~Robert Witmer

fortune teller

at the tiller

a small boat banking

on a wave

goodbye

~Robert Witmer