Afternoon of March 4, 2024

the humming

of stars

in Ursa major

~Linda L Ludwig

rumcake for breakfast / maybe inebriation / better two servings

~Charles A. Perrone

Gaudy ring

Confirms betrothed

Cuts glass and heart

~Suzanne S. Austin-Hill

celebrating

chemical reactions

garage floor rags

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

one after the other

I call on the spirit

of my siblings

in heart and mind

they guide me

~Anne Curran

reviving the lost practice of gazing out windows

~Patrick Sweeney

remembering the chalk-sized yellow teeth of the ragman's horse

~Patrick Sweeney

the importance of prime numbers after we're gone

~Patrick Sweeney

another question with no real interest in an answer

~Patrick Sweeney

he seemed to always have hard rain on his roof

~Patrick Sweeney

The cow in the middle of a crowded road

The cow on a crowded road.

Rush by her the citizens of a moribund city.

The cow is in her pregnancy, ruminates indifferently

Ignoring them by thinking

As if the rushing skeletons do nothing but run to and fro

Without thinking why to rush and when to stop.

After a while she crosses the road leaving a message -

If they do not ruminate the future,

One there will be indigestion in development

And pride.

~Partha Sarkar

depression

the desire to give up

every dawn

~Leela Satyan

kintsugi

what coffee does

to my soul

~Leela Satyan

icicle

the agony of hanging

upside down

~Leela Satyan

An Indian Intellectual

The silent coffin with clamorous dead in the womb full of white fumes.

And all doors are open when

All round faces which were once flattened

Try to find out how many gamblers there are in the alleys of escapism

To sell the hollow backbone

And are very happy all dead of the world who

Burn skins with obscene conversation by chewing quids

and break the placid slumber of the lake

Yet none know how much responsible is for eczema the discount on body lotion.

~Partha Sarkar

so short so easy?

haiku writing in the moment

the juxtaposition

of a blank mind

with a white page

~Wanda Amos

this rusty heart

is closed

but never locked

~Wanda Amos

Afternoon of March 3, 2024

Postapocalyptic Rerun

Stone Age redux

Flintstones fans

get a Fred start

~John H. Dromey

Bread and Butter Logic

let a diner whose

manners are impeccable

cast the first scone

~John H. Dromey

Full Wheel on Display

blue moon

for limited time only

blue cheese

~John H. Dromey

I thought I was broken

like a pot with no handles.

I thought I was broken

like the sky spitting out birds.

I thought I was broken like

thoughts cracking open.

And in each shell a mandible.

And in each mandible a shard.

~Noah Berlatsky

Intimate venue?

Reading from wooden pallet

in a parking lot

~Keith Snow

Some count sheep to sleep

I was counting syllables

While I was sleeping

~Keith Snow

In my haiku dream

searching for seasonal words

 find thyme finally

~Keith Snow

switching off

airplane mode

time

to let the world

back in

~Nicola Schaum

swimming pool

I clean the death trap

bugs and butterflies

~Nicola Schaum

twisted ovary

like a lamb

to slaughter

hoping

for a miracle

~Nicola Schaum

he loves me. . .

                  running 

                          out 

                               of 

                                   petals

                                            ... not 

~Nicola Schaum

dark corners

I need a spider

to catch my flies

~Kimberly Kuchar

all along

my dreams were made of lead

Maltese Falcon

~Kimberly Kuchar

Afternoon of February 27, 2024

my continuous personal consciousness goes right on peeling potatoes

~Patrick Sweeney

I wish I was a butterfly

I'll grow wings when I die.

I wish that I was a phoenix

I'll rise again from cinder and ashes.

I wish I will live forever

forever young and forever fair.

but wishing stars fade, die

wishing stars fade and die.

~Fhen M.

in the frozen ground

a new grave waiting

to be fed

~Tom Blessing

pigeons

flying roof to roof

must be bored

~Tom Blessing

red banarasi

like sunshine

her acid-burnt face

~Debarati Sen



 

hail oh mountain wolves / do howl to your hearts' content / to tell us what is

~Charles A. Perrone

The twelve apostles rise

from the dead. Their job?

Drag bodies from Gaza

over the wall into Egypt.

When will the killing end,

they ask a wandering hippie ghost

singing about sunshine.

The sky turns black.

A cross appears,

holding a weeping man.

~Pris Campbell

isolating the war drums in his speech

~Patrick Sweeney

the people who didn't get there in time

~Patrick Sweeney

a pebble

in my niece's forehead

war hero

~Shasta Hatter

four crows stand

in the street

unmoved by cars

~Shasta Hatter

heavy with secrets

oh, how I long

to keep them

~Shasta Hatter

5G

the good doctor's

burner phone

~Kelly Moyer

twist of fate

a typo

in the tea leaves

~Kelly Moyer

he listened to both sides and served tea

~Patrick Sweeney

she was a smoker who every now and then wore a halo

~Patrick Sweeney

Morning of February 26, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

two shoes minus one poltergeist

~Lafcadio

π 

8 

1 

4 

2 

15 

@

~Lafcadio

around and around

pictures on a spinning top

of extinct species

~John Hawkhead

sudden nightfall

pulling tarpaulin

over a face

~John Hawkhead

others are shackled to walls or masts

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

chasing people down / yelling / "you ate my brother!"

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

If I referenced a classical myth or a jazz musician

you would have to love me, my Pulitzer judge of the heart.

~Noah Berlatsky

lost wallet

retracing my steps

i find myself

~Stephanie Zepherelli

war orphan

finding a teddy bear

with one eye

~Stephanie Zepherelli

the actress

eyelids all aflutter

a moth in a jar

~Mike Gallagher

early hours

crackling cockroaches

underfoot

~Mike Gallagher

ruminating —

a mountain goat treads

the track less taken

~Mike Gallagher

reflections in the mirror

all the voices

in my head

~Mike Fainzilber

 

 

 

power cut

the silence

of the lamps

~Mike Fainzilber

 

Afternoon of February 21, 2024

                

biting wind odontalgia

~JL Huffman

ice fog glassy limbs genuflect

~JL Huffman

career dreams

measured in pell grants

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

pendulum

back and forth – daily

to the office and back

~Marie Derley

Democracy is no more...

Then should there be

Another revolution?

I am not sure about

That cul-de-sac.

~Partha Sarkar

Birds pecked my silence

Winter covered screaming wounds with snow

Why can't I sew myself into a cocoon

Why can't I be resurrected as a butterfly?

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Corporeal)

Death inside the head:

Love or pride?

I don't paint flowers on the wall of your back

I'm just coloring my gray lonely shadow

Question of silence:

Death or life without love?

~Mykyta Ryzhykh


(Originally published in Corporeal)

I grab the tree but its branches don't care

I'm walking through the cemetery looking for life

I cry about the living because the

dead are indifferent to everything

I don't find anyone alive anywhere in this world

Only photographs on graves speak to me of love

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in boats against the current)

The bush is devoid of all berries

Autumn is now stripping off the leaves too

The future is uncertain

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in boats against the current)

light is faster than sound

I can see them but can't hear them.

~Fhen M.

light passes through the glass window

they can't see us in this darkness.

~Fhen M.

 

wood borer beetles tracks

exposed on an old log

untranslated ancient script

~Steve Van Allen

used science fiction paperbacks

the bookstore cat

suspicious

~Randy Brooks

nature preserve

the nickname for our yard

at the block party

~Randy Brooks

 

 

 

 

portraits gallery / paintings of dead monarchs rule / please take no photos

~Charles A. Perrone

Platitudes

Words

hollow enough

to hide knives.

~Chad Parenteau

Muppet Buffalo

Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà

Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà Mah Nà.

~Chad Parenteau