Evening of June 3, 2024

PRF (The Pluto Rehabilitation Front)

Let's campaign to rehabilitate Pluto!

Since I was a child

Pluto was the ninth planet

of our solar system.

I don't want to believe that our teachers

were wrong for so long

or that Pluto had a free ride.

Let's campaign to rehabilitate Pluto

FREE PLUTO - FREE PLUTO!

~Marie Derley

it's too easy now for loners to keep in touch

~Patrick Sweeney

always the first to spot Hitchcock

in the films

he never made

~Patrick Sweeney

leaving the bathroom

a female worker

washes her hands

at

the kitchen sink

~Tuyet Van Do

On the last day of May I lay down

And wept with joy for many things

For friends for foes for sunsets

Sunrise, birds' dawn chorus

Journeys in space time

Lines without rhyme

Love lasting

Soaring

Still

~Olinda Ninolakis

bracing my heart

for the letter in the mail

final papers

~Jennifer Gurney

late night fire pits

long, slow mornings...

the pace of summer

~Jennifer Gurney

droplets on glass

a race to the bottom

I always win

~John Hawkhead

he doesn't want to go to the search party

~Patrick Sweeney

strange quarks

I revise my story

one more time

~John Hawkhead

bulldozers cut coconut trees

to construct a Quonset hut community

~Fhen M.

coke is a symbol of friendship

one advertisement claimed

& we believe it.

~Fhen M.

when only time

stands between now and the end

the finality

~Jennifer Gurney

a fern fiddlehead--

why can't I bloom?

ever questioning

~Tejendra Sherchan

Afternoon of June 3, 2024

The Seductress

~Kelly Moyer

Photography available here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

separating the river's twin spiriting a boat to drown in

~petro c. k.

innocent antarctic parallel pines

~J. D. Nelson

no possums in the propeller

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

never nevering

~petro c. k.

there once was a twice

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

could be risky hundreds & thousands

~J. D. Nelson

looking to blame Prometheus done with us

~petro c. k.

checkered bovine weirdly impoverished

~J. D. Nelson

digging in the snow

on Burns Night

a handsome skunk

~Janet Ruth Heller

“…not this poem, not this space…”

sweet spot, sucker-punched

solar plexus, took a direct hit

domain of negativity, engaged

like a match to dry hay, papers scorched

recall a poetic colloquialism

writer’s glass chin

~Suzanne S. Austin-Hill

power company

razes lilacs, wild peas—

war zone

~Janet Ruth Heller

antique chamber pot

elevated on a shelf

after all the shit

~Kimberly Kuchar

left in the dust

3-D coral reefers

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

high school stadium

a track hurdle jumped

by a deer

~John J. Dunphy

London wall

two men peeing

across time

~Kimberly Kuchar

behind the singing boys

guitar cover’s dreamcatcher

sways in the wind

~Tejendra Sherchan

my "happy father's day, dad"

drowned out by

the cemetery's lawnmower

~John J. Dunphy

birds

without beaks

ask for a drink

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Password)

neither here nor there

meet me in Rumi's field

Somewhere Else

~Olinda Ninolakis

bone grates on bone

pain…movement slows

mobility aid

~JL Huffman

I used to feed

a stray cat and her kittens—

now I feed her alone

~Tejendra Sherchan

used furniture store

test-sitting a sofa

I rise with fleas

~John J. Dunphy

Morning of June 2, 2024

the pain of separation

tossing

peanuts to the crows

~Kelly Moyer

dusk

crow

bough

~Noah Berlatsky

fire rainbows

behind polycarbonate

lanugo

~Joshua St. Claire

confounded by her bra clasps night sakura

~Joshua St. Claire

totality

the feel of it

in my goat feet

~Joshua St. Claire

sunset sky

walking home

together yet alone

~Nisha Raviprasad

soft breeze

dandelions cloud

my thoughts

~Nisha Raviprasad

daybreak—

a quick swish

lost in the ripple

~Bette Murdoch Hopper

lorem ipsum

the forests

i have created

the forests

i cannot burn

~Tiffany Elise

dermatologist

interprets constellations

on my skin

~Anthony Lusardi

another time-out

her apple slices

turning brown

~Anthony Lusardi

bare pine tree

your bald head

looking smaller

~Anthony Lusardi

Holy Rolly

I now know that

Papal Pay Pal is

the Pontiff's way

to compensate us

via digital means.

~Charles A. Perrone

The New Baptist

fish sticks and blueberry wine

are how I get closer

to Him.

~Jacob Hatfield

orbital linings

of a pebble—

my fatelines

~Tejendra Sherchan

After Chiya

hototogisu

hototogisu again

daylight again and

~Noah Berlatsky

so you crush moonlight

i too

fight the past tense

~Tiffany Elise

 

Morning of May 28, 2024

 

The Plot Twist

~Kelly Moyer

Photography available here

 

 

 

 

 

 

(metaphysics in the mirror)

flesh: ah, self

~Scott Parker

Buddha Anniversary —

almost all cockroaches die

I seek forgiveness

~Tejendra Sherchan

there's nothing wrong

with montana 

than an early

summer trail

run can't cure

~Scott Parker

 lying in bed,

reflecting on getting older,

telling myself I’m still

sharp, strong, looking good,

then waking up

~ Todd Matson

peeping through

graveyard vines —

black sand hourglass

~Debarati Sen

studying the configuration of violets on the front lawn

~Patrick Sweeney

muddy river      drinking trees

~Scott Parker

another one of my 3 a.m. parleys with a bilocating saint

~Patrick Sweeney

chrysalis moon  shedding my former self

~Debarati Sen

if by salvation you mean the internal temperature of cod

~Kelly Moyer

my last meal   maybe a piece of dry toast

~Patrick Sweeney

hunched man begs

at freeway off-ramp

I offer a prayer

and a dollar

~Shasta Hatter

mug warm with coffee

no rain yet falling

~Scott Parker

dawn

our swimming pool already occupied

by cicadas

~John J. Dunphy

unfazed

the moon has so little

left to say

~Kelly Moyer

early summer's heat

queue for Goddess Sankata

a butterfly’s company

~Tejendra Sherchan

The Elephant’s Stand-In

 

not to be ignored

the dinosaur in the room

recycled junk science

~John H. Dromey

huddled on the dry corner of the mattress...

the bedwetter's

long eyelashes

~Patrick Sweeney

 

Ladylike

~Kelly Moyer

Photography available here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning of May 25, 2024

 

 

enemy soldiers stationed on an island

sailed a motorboat to a local bar

at the end of the world

~Fhen M

battle fatigue a spoonful of jam or two in the smallest cup

~Alan Summers

somewhere in the southern mountain

a Hollywood actor used a binocular

to measure the speed of a fake enemy ship

~Fhen M

warring neighbours

the oak and banyan meet

over the wall

~Ranu Jain

child warriors Molotov mocktails

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

summit—

the diplomat adds rum

to her coffee

~Sharon Ferrante

The Argonaut Octopus Detaches his Loaded Arm

Socially distanced sex makes babies too.

Masks optional.

~Cheryl Snell

how did it feel

dear moon

the rocket on your skin?

~Ranu Jain

weeding

in the herb garden —

it’s not rocket

~Mark Gilbert

Curtain Call

Summer concert in the round. 

Mad applause.

Reviews noted that

no mosquitoes survived.

~Cheryl Snell

skeletons rose from a forgotten graveyard

no fresh flowers were offered to the dead

~Fhen M

The 30th Month

the waiting room crosses over

its magazines updated

its puzzles solved

an inner hurricane

by the sunset

black new moon

all our names pass

through shadows

~Alan Summers

what does it matter antimatter anyway

~Mark Gilbert

They this They that They are Whoever you want Them to be

~Mark Gilbert

We Leave a Screening of Real Genius When Someone Yells Fire

...and we’re running

past extinguishers and alarms,

watching the theater explode with popcorn,

kernels rising into the damaged sky 

like so much applause.

~Cheryl Snell

Afternoon of May 22, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Commitmentphobe

~Kelly Moyer 

Photography available here

 

 summer squall

a sudden flurry

of fast food napkins

~John Pappas

Manunggul jar ferries a soul

to the land of the dead

~Fhen M.

forgotten veteran of a

forgotten war buried in a

forgotten cemetery

~John J. Dunphy

closing time

barfly exits through

the restroom door

~John J. Dunphy

he escapes by sea

she adjusts

her monogram

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

pauper's burial

his eulogy delivered

by cicadas

~John J. Dunphy

dinner at the mall

savoring leftovers

from trash cans

~Surya Nes

white clover

the field fills with

the om of bees

~John Pappas

picnic for two

now three…

the robber fly

~Elliot Diamond

evening chill

on the welcome sign

faded paint

~John Pappas

I think I could be happy

if only I had no ambitions.

But here too I have failed.

~Noah Berlatsky

the fiercest of battles

may the best dragon win

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

he pledges his

allegiance to the spice rack—

deviled eggs

~David Cox

a self-inflicted hidden agenda

~Patrick Sweeney

wait, what am I trying to say?

~Fhen M.

people who think they know a short cut

~Patrick Sweeney

funeral hymn the dust on model planes

~John Pappas

she has me on a 30-second delay

~Patrick Sweeney

once upon a twice

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

it's really all just an excuse for woolgathering

~Patrick Sweeney

The Construct

~Kelly Moyer 

Photography available here