Morning of May 20, 2024

 

high-rise balcony—

a potted plant leans

towards the edge of escape

~Nalini Shetty

The Alternate Universe Routine

William S. Burroughs

does stand-up

Lenny Bruce

writes novels

WSB doesn't kill his wife

Lenny never gets arrested

~dan smith

Revenge of madness

Little gophers of construction in the palm of hopes


Guns screamed

The end of all roads

We swam out to drown

The only prospect is waiting

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Tipton poetry Journal )

One or two glowworms

The squinted looks

Throughout the day.

Where should I flee?

Comes the evening.

I hide behind the undergrowth.

There are one or two extinct glowworms.

I get shelter and save my identity.

~Partha Sarkar

counting flower petals thinking about Ophelia trying to stay sane

~Joana Figueiredo

crushing my eyelids together my refusal to cry

~Joana Figueiredo

mad woman

casting ashes to the wind

grieving myself

~Joana Figueiredo

You don't come home

You don't come to the neighbors

You don't come to me

You don't come to your senses

You can't take out the trash

You don't clean your ears

Looks like I died

Inside your head

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Tipton poetry Journal )

dead black beetle

inside Angel’s Trumpet--

a blissful death

~Tejendra Sherchan

dragging my legs home

all my flickering lights

about to go out

~Joana Figueiredo

all the way to Mars

Fido dreamed of the wind

on his face

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

one more asteroid

nudged across Earth's orbit

dirty pool

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

So Here We Are

under the bright moon

tearing apart this sheep

our partners

and bare-skinned children

toss in their beds

dream of monsters

with human faces

and long sharp teeth

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

The Ghost of Phil Ochs Floats Over Lincoln Park Like Tear Gas

four days in August 2024

fifty-six years on

~dan smith

At last dies every day the innocent

At last died the innocent.

It had been suffering for a long time

Perhaps from helplessness

Or one of its souls might be broken by Time.

However I put it on the grass by the dustbin

And despite being sad, I wait for another tonight

With my companion - the sad note of saxophone.

~Partha Sarka

empty nest

in a bead tree—

egg moon above

~Tejendra Sherchan

milk moon

her tender gaze I drink

almond beverages now

~Madeleine Kavanagh

wi-fi signals

connecting everyone

yet not connecting

~Nalini Shetty

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 )

crowded subway—

our eyes meet and then retreat

alone together

~Nalini Shetty

A bird doesn't know it's a bird.

A stone doesn't know it's a stone.

Like them, I know who I am.

~Noah Berlatsky

watercress

every time I open the fridge

there you are

~Madeleine Kavanagh

Morning of May 18, 2024

 

~Jerome Berglund

the alloy steel hips

pitched well forward

the groomsmen

checked for

perpendicularity

~Richard Magahiz

my mistress' eyes

are nothing like

fuel pellets

~Richard Magahiz

in tissue temples  pasteboard altars

~Richard Magahiz

there could have been

only the one sun

but no

~Richard Magahiz

glass, vodka-clear,

slicing gold with a

bamboo edge

~Richard Magahiz

Dark purple, deep purple, adolescent angst

Dark purple, deep purple, menopausal freedom

Say what comes into your head, no filter, no mask

Don't think twice, follow your heart, no need to ask

Dramatic colour of ritual and rite

Dramatic colour stolen in the night

No pastel tones, no wishy-washy clones

In your face, purple is no disgrace

~Olinda Ninolakis

old age

like adolescence

home by nine

~Chris Collins

Hope stealers

They pluck the sun

right out of the sky

~Angela Evans

Poetry trigger

Middle of the night

nausea

~Angela Evans

Barbie love

Women rule

in a dream house

~Angela Evans

urban birdsong

harmonizing with

traffic

~Jennifer Gurney

horns twisted by some strong half-god

carabao lies on the grassland

~Fhen M.

when, invaders, are, near,

they may run

~Fhen M.

when proper channels

have been diverted...

connect four

~Jerome Berglund

solar flares

tinfoil

on the tube

~Jerome Berglund

blues harp

different kinds

of flight risk

~Jerome Berglund

 

Afternoon of May 16, 2024

 

The Overlord

~Kelly Moyer
 
Photography available here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

spring storm—

the dialogue interrupted

by a short circuit

~Nicoletta Ignatti

flea

it danced it here now there again

and sprang its music deep upon me

i speak i speak i speak i speak

sucking out a sip of me for it to live

a fat disgust a hot sink drowning

a crushing between fingernails

i this god dispense

in answer to its helpless daring

while i this flea am honoured here

in answer to my need

and worse and worse expect it

~Harry Owen

Springtime spiders, cute and small,

skitter up the hallway wall,

kitchen counter, kitchen chair,

weft their webs within your hair.

~Terry Trowbridge

red traffic light

sitting behind the motorist

a zip-tied barbie

~Tuyet Van Do

dry gin the empty quarter in my mind map

~John Hawkhead

 

 

in the desert (when I stop thinking of it) an oasis

~Arvinder Kaur

 

 

carbon credit to absolutely no one

~John Hawkhead

clothes shopping —

the men in dire need

of a woman

~Maurizio Brancaleoni

I see a silent film star

working in a shop

She tends the till, wraps the gifts.

She looks up slightly to the left

never straight at me.

Her skin is celluloid

The day is black and white

~Sarah Davies

GPS tells me

I am on the fastest route

to perdition

~James Penha

deserted island

i'm not

a man so maybe

i'm an island,

hopefully a deserted one;

i don't want people

walking all over me.

~linda m. crate

no wonder the lily

blooms just for a day

this world of men

~Arvinder Kaur

BE WARNED

if you’re

sitting by yourself

in a coffee shop

and reading

something by

Thomas Pynchon

I cannot be

responsible

for my

undivided

attention

~John Grey

 

Closure

~Michael Lee Johnson

Morning of May 12, 2024

Psychic Grief

diehard pessimist

her spirit animal

is a dead duck

~John H. Dromey

the latest fashion

a search for identity

in a differential equation

~Robert Witmer

a dragon bone?

the little girl returns

a curtsy

~Randy Brooks

Yellow press or gutter newspapers

Custard, mustard, lemon meringue pie

Book pages yellowed by the heat

Yellow spots on the mirror's surface

Yellow sun full of midday beach time glamour

Yellow moon risen to brighten nighttime pallor

Yellow skin sickened by jaundice

Yellow fingers stained by tobacco

Yellow Hockney crocs my word

Yellow is wonderful and absurd

~Olinda Ninolakis

Alas! war is not responsible

Fleeing poor in the election.

A weak and sick crawling kitten in democracy.

It rains after the prolonged heatwave.

Yet a mixed fleeing- Will an innocent get a perfect green cottage?

An eternal conscience!

I suffer because of the lack of green.

Alas! war is not responsible for that.

~Partha Sarkar

Doubt Sourcing

A.I.dentity crisis

~John H. Dromey

the contrasts

the symmetry

but Shane

never comes back

~dan smith

walk-in clinic

already seated in the waiting room

my one-night stand

~John J. Dunphy

Poison Pen Letter

venomous words

in tightly-wound cursive coils

waiting to strike

~John H. Dromey

                     stillpoint

                a brief refuge . . .

            in the hurricane eye

~Stephanie Zepherelli

a child

the cat

catastrophic

collapse

her community

~Wanda Amos

afternoon sun

a monkey family

grooming each other

so delicious

the fat fleas

~Wanda Amos

the wheel without the sun one could be

~J. D. Nelson

dandelion parking the drive-in theatre

~Randy Brooks

parakeet angle you redundant you

~J. D. Nelson

gurgling brook who’s a good baby stream

~Susan Burch

grain chain the world after next

~J. D. Nelson

campaign logic as strong as an oxymoron

~Robert Witmer

that name suddenly one hundred prowling frogs

~J. D. Nelson

flapdoodle morning

making my way

to malarkey

~Susan Burch

Afternoon of May 8, 2024

 

constellation, an endless source of food

my pocket as empty as my stomach.

~Fhen M.

in spite of it all

student debt

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Listen

If you carve a poem on a tree in a forest and

the tree falls on you and

you and the tree decay together over a hundred years.

Mushrooms grow out of your eyes.

Mushrooms grow out of your eyes.

Mushrooms grow out of your ears.

What was I saying?

~Noah Berlatsky

circling

their cubicles

customer service reps

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

the crispness

of his meat skewers…

al Dante

~David Cox

I am Orion & with my dog

hunt meat & fish in the sea of stars

~Fhen M.

Loving you 41

In

a

coal

mine

the

canary's

last

breath.

~Matt Borczon

Loving you 26

the

truth

only

dogs

know

~Matt Borczon

Loving you 22

wishing

it

was

easier.

~Matt Borczon

Loving you 11

screaming

into

an

empty

church.

~Matt Borczon

Morning of May 8, 2024

tornadoes in a rain forest

hurricanes in a desert

murky muki

~dan smith

this isa

sorta true poem

about art where

it comes from

what it's for

nothing

i can answer

in under two decades

apparent

ly

~Scott F. Parker

Children's Games

             

            Vanilla or Chocolate?

            Chocolate or Strawberryy?

            I don't want any of these.

            I want Caramel which is never offered.

            It's been a life-long habit--

            always wanting to reframe

            the problem, the issues, the choices,

            whatever.................

~Karen Klein

   o u 

s        p

in      us 

     it

~dan smith

hard-won fortune

pissing against the pub wall

an errant heir

~Mike Gallagher

Poe, a tree!



There! Look!

Behind you!

To the left and to the right!

Ahead and above!

Inward and beyond!

~Scott F. Parker

cemetery wind

a lifetime of wishes

blown away

~Mona Bedi

The early bird

gets the senior spaghetti special

at Luigi’s, 4 PM sharp.

~Nolcha Fox

lying here

wondering whether

it's the outer thigh

looking up

or the inner thigh

looking down

I'm feeling

it really doesn't matter

now that we've reached

a certain age

~Mike Gallagher

dancer pigeonholed

as too old

bitter lemons

~Karen Klein

it's raining

in the poem

about rain

and the

one

about that

too

~Scott F. Parker

northbound geese

a neon open sign

flickers

~Mariel Herbert

first to flip the switch / next to absorb the colors / neon light special

~Charles A. Perrone

all those languages we do not know for a start birdsong

~Mike Gallagher

past the life we led before we led our lives

~Mona Bedi

Dusk falls, new moonlight, stars, planets and hope arise.

~Keith Snow

note from the mass grave

thankfully

we were not the killers

~Mike Fainzilber