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