Afternoon of April 16, 2024

Earth on a

stack of turtles

then more turtles

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

life

clue

war

sorry

indoor recess

~Jennifer Gurney

for you darling

would I divide

by zero forever

~Richard Magahiz

visitation over —

he removes his wife's wedding ring

before closing the coffin

~John J. Dunphy

footsteps

out of synch with mine

we both start to run

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Fearsome predators

A shark subsisting on abandoned dreams

The orange mold that grows on the face you no longer wear

A hookworm that sucks the joys of forgotten days

Pale mysterious bears craving unrecognized sacrifice

Scorpions drawn to any unmet potential

~Richard Magahiz

my hands

how many nanometers

to your moon?

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

jewelled knees elbows that beat kicks in

~Richard Magahiz

such a relief

when the key

fits the lock

~Jennifer Gurney

312th floor:

window walls squeegee

themselves

~Richard Magahiz

9 lives, 20 naps a day

sounds like a good plan

~Jay Passer

boomerangs

act just like some mail

return to sender

~Chris Collins

low to high

inch marks on the wall

empty nest

~Kavita Ratna

bird shadow flew

   through me and a lizard

she dove under a log

   I was only mildly disturbed

~Steve Van Allen

the bodies hang out tin signs     quetzal birds swoop past

~Richard Magahiz

pavement

returns to lime and sand

wordlessly birds call

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

 

 

Evening of April 15, 2024

 

fried egg and sausage

seeing my future

death stare

~Melissa Dennison

NUCLEAR

A little bit

of havoc and

a little bit of hell

is my idea of heaven

which is really

just as well in

a cockroach world.

~Lindsay McLeod

I did hear them say

the words "amplifying you"

Is it size or sound?

~Charles A. Perrone

UNBUTTERED

Now the thing we had in

the toaster has popped and

the smoke alarm is being...

melodramatic.

So I set to scraping the

burn from the bread

only to find that,

all I have left is the knife.

~Lindsay McLeod

one haiku moment

deserves another

double espresso latte

~Robert Epstein

Firm Commitment

vampires prefer their victims al dente

~John H. Dromey

is that a devil entendre

~Robert Epstein

Lack of Closure

three body problem

hitman’s compact car

teeny weeny trunk

~John H. Dromey

resonance

magnet orchestral tune

probes to the core

~J.L. Huffman

Luna's desk covers Sol

the king as the sunlike

trembles in fear.

~Fhen M.

solar eclipse—

what you hide from me

has its days numbered

~Nicoletta Ignatti

There's this cat who's sort of bold

He demands to be treated like gold

Forgetting the days he was a stray

In the backyard where he'd stay

Now he's used to all his meals bowled

~Jackie Chou

murder of crows

arrested motion

hangman’s rope drops

~J.L. Huffman

GENU FLECKS

She said she inherited

her cool from me and

her lies from her mother

so now I don't really

know whether to

believe her or not.

~Lindsay McLeod

family reunion—

the popcorn explodes

in the pan

~Nicoletta Ignatti

SOFT ALARM

Woken again by the scarlet fever

a visceral word through

the heartless receiver

I wondered how long since

I'd dared that voice when I

heard my catastrophe call.

~Lindsay McLeod

fly me to the moon

and house me with the other

introverts

~Robert Epstein

Afternoon of April 10, 2024

 

beginning to learn my bit part in the cosmic peekaboo

~Patrick Sweeney

unless I am corrupt never it could not

~J. D. Nelson

the mystical ardor in which she picks up a stone

~Patrick Sweeney

in the tree canopy nesting warheads

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

scraping the full-belly comments in the garbage can

~Patrick Sweeney

black mail blots in my lover’s copybook

~Patricia Hawkhead

fly is lectured idea rays

~J. D. Nelson

spider sense

at the base of my skull

the cup of his hand

~Patricia Hawkhead

A weather forecast—

It will not rain in some days.

Suddenly it began to storm and rain.

I bow down to nature—

The unpredictable met office.

~Partha Sarkar

highways closed yet

wind speeds at 100

miles per hour

~Jennifer Gurney

street art

canvases abandoned

at the curb

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

listen bub, unloading their carts

nobody wants a lecture

on the history of cinnamon

~Patrick Sweeney

Those

are not

my

packages.

~Noah Berlatsky

all these years, the number of leaves on a shamrock

~Patrick Sweeney

spoon fed thin soup indeed

~dan smith

in eschatological terror of long-range planning

~Patrick Sweeney

sliced green apple praying hands

~J. D. Nelson

the Uber driver has a solution to the smash and grab

~Patrick Sweeney

Afternoon of April 9, 2024

 

Social Anxiety

Approach social structures:

Fall apart immediately.

~Thomas Skahill

People travel hundreds of miles

for 4 minute eclipse

crosstown visit to see grandma too far

~Peter A. Witt

5 fleas

on the cold moon

dancing to spring

~Elliot Diamond

total eclipse

animals and endtimers

run for cover

~David Josephsohn

MTG says eclipse is warning from god

god says MTG needs a fact check

~Peter A. Witt

And how did it happen

that the sun and moon are in the same sky?

~Fhen M.

Duck, duck, duck

goose, goose, goose

splatter, spatter, splatter

doesn't matter, matter, matter

~Peter A. Witt

old frog

the sound of water

or ChatGPT

~Noah Berlatsky

Razor blades work better

than rollerblades when shaving

~Peter A. Witt

Almost every Easter, even though no spring chicken, I have a challenge with Easter eggs.

sugar moon

needing some sort of self control

chocolate Easter eggs

~Madeleine Kavanagh

palm reading the future I never wanted to know

~Mona Bedi

what katydid beneath the moon

~Tracy Davidson

dragons in the phoenix nest

your tax dollars

at work

~Mike Fainzilber

from irresistible

to invisible

middle age

~Mike Fainzilber

Kegari

Oh and no,

as yet I mold

an old

ugly soul

born for need

of control.

~Thomas Skahill

childhood…

when fairy tales

were a reality

~Mona Bedi

Morning of April 6, 2024

shadow on the wall flower

~Jennifer Gurney

waiting for the other shoe bam

~Jennifer Gurney

 

 

 

Touch me with your silent hand

You'll never touch me with your hand

Don't kiss me

My cheeks are too cold for my lips

I won't kiss you

Your cheeks are too cold for tears

Love flutters in the air like a butterfly

Love is still in the air just like it was in the beginning



Everything goes back to its place

You are without me and I am alone

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Corporeal Lit Mag)

 

 

first date already finishing each other’s sentences soulmates

~Jennifer Gurney

pluck out my eyes at night

draw my pupils during the day

take the trash out of my head

I love you to the point of madness

my head is full of garbage from the past

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Corporeal Lit Mag)

The remittent fever and the broken second empire

The drooping North Star. (The night never gets black)

The intensive arrets in the monastery.

Flies like a machine, the cream of anatomy of the soul.

Has been seeing the oddities of the wisdom the flight of the birds.

But surprisingly, there is egoism in death.

That means, will the monk leave the monastery?

No hole knows where the plain is.

Someone pinions the fire at the decayed knee.

Comes the letter from floodstriken waters.

~Partha Sarkar

on the wall of the Jerusalem café

no smoking

peace pipes allowed

~Daniel Birnbaum

lonely

I listen to the satnav

to drive home

~Daniel Birnbaum

sea wind

going to die in a plastic bag

the seabream

~Daniel Birnbaum

if not for totality God

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

who planned the eclipse during the standardized testing window

~Jennifer Gurney

Afternoon of April 4, 2024

mental gymnastics

a new event

uneven parallel universes

~Robert Witmer

what are we?

i ask myself

who we are,

and

what we are?

but no one can

ever answer,

perhaps,

sometimes we only

have questions instead of answers.

~linda m. crate

There is no provision for mornings

The active shrewdness. A merchant with a pshycotic net.

By the roadside, a dead puppy

And by the side of it, another puppy—hungry, weak

And under the grey sky and dry eyes a helpless mother...

Rush the casual labourers ignoring them

Yet pain has no colour in the inhabitant.

A system authoritative.

Come like clouds the despair and a replica of happiness in the glass.

Breaks its one of the hands the round triangle.

~Partha Sarkar

St. Patrick's Day

the street mission's bread green

with mold

~John J. Dunphy

even moldy cheese

was the beginning

of something good

~Jennifer Gurney

the glacier's lament

a sour lemon's

lost meringue

~Robert Witmer

the chalkboard list

of today’s pies

coconut cream

~Randy Brooks

coroner’s report

the body took no vow

of silence

~Randy Brooks

the beginning

or the end

of a rope

depends on which

way you’re headed

~Randy Brooks

Interplanetary Pen Pals

a wayward comet

I don’t feel threatened by it

it’s headed your way

~John H. Dromey

Truthful Consequence

cardiologist

says I cannot tell A-Fib

doesn’t get the job

~John H. Dromey

haiku contest

the em dashes

stand in a queue

~Debarati Sen

icarus reborn

we could never

have flying cars,

you'd leave them

on e and then fall out of

the sky, leaving behind

only metal and shattered

bones.

~linda m. crate

dancing to an old 45

scratches

on my blue suede shoes

~Robert Witmer

at the wall of a fast food outlet fruit seller

~Gillena Cox

VR tour meets self-driving truck

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

a zebra's zither in the lion's jaws

~Robert Witmer

morning rhythms sync weight of a falling blossom

~Gillena Cox

Grandma did nothing for her last seventeen years

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

a wild one stormy wind trying to steal my

~Gillena Cox

You cannot open a door

without a cat getting through.

The solution is to never open a door

and just sit there with the cats.

~Noah Berlatsky

the dreaming

i still remember

the dreaming,

but sometimes i

don't remember

how to get there.

~linda m. crate

last squab

on a makeshift spit

I'll miss birds

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel