Afternoon of June 27, 2024


 

the seventh galaxy...

so the first six just

not good enough?

~Richard Magahiz




neosilk rubbed

wormholes spill out

through her fingers

~Richard Magahiz




with each tiptoe    another crater

~Richard Magahiz




On Top?

 

Stand on top of the rock

that mimics a fossilized

cow patty dropped

by a Neanderthal bovine.

 

Makes you look like

a come-to-the-party-

too-late fly wandering

on sun-baked manure.

~Diane Webster




reading Lovecraft

to the carnivorous plants

I'm touched

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel




risk assessment

funding cut for

asteroid watch

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel




I wake to find

black hoofprints on your back

nightmare?

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel




the dinosaurs

no more toilet paper

on the shelves

~Randy Brooks




curling her hair

straight

frozen orange juice cans

~Randy Brooks




fox not going anywhere

outside

the eagle’s stomach

~Randy Brooks




Together In Alone

 

The solitary woman walks

down the only dirt road

in and out from land

occupied by a lone

tree seen for miles.

~Diane Webster




Toward Point

 

Sharp triangle of light

slices through the darkness

on street level where

one human silhouette

 

drags its shadow

toward the apex point

separating, joining

day to night merge,

submerge silhouette.

~Diane Webster




old clay pitcher

still unfilled with night long

Monsoon rain

~Tejendra Sherchan




political argument

two buttheads

butt heads

~John J. Dunphy

 

Morning of June 25, 2024

 

we’ve rolled together

bounced off each other a few times

but eventually settled

in this U-shaped valley

where the stream meanders to the sea

~Mark Gilbert


 

 

all this dusk burning my story

~Tiffany Elise




solstice or the inferno of same same

~Tiffany Elise




'Glacier is dead...'

Frightens the human stomach

The last message

From the river

For farming.

~Partha Sarkar




security


that gorgeous jazz

my bank plays me

to placate me soothe me

calm me down

distract me convince me

everything’s going to be fine

 

If you would like to hear ambient birdsong instead of jazz music please press 1 now.

~Mark Gilbert




I once saw bound bouquets

of blue roses at a market

as a child

so many years ago

that now it feels like

it was another person

puzzling over their indigo petals

~Simon Kaeppeli




now heavy reading

the paperback beach novel

drenched by the tide

~John J. Dunphy




Urban design



Polished streets

Streamlined for efficient traffic

Darkened windows fail to catch the eye

Nothing to see here

A homeless man is ushered away

Lest he would make people think

~Simon Kaeppeli




god’s waiting room

a crossword puzzle

with the easy ones

already filled in

by somebody else

in the queue

~Mark Gilbert




I list

my car for sale –

very same day

check engine light

comes on

~Jennifer Gurney




and maybe it was too hard


for you

to stop the ivy

from spreading

from choking off

the oak

~Tiffany Elise




don’t ask —                                                       i will end up saying  
                                          
                      yes to everything

~Rupa Anand

 

 


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Afternoon of June 19, 2024


 

I will hide

deep in this forest

tell stories

to giants

a thousand years old

~Sharon Ferrante




Busy Route


a glass-bottom bus

to see who’s thrown under it

Washington, D.C.

~John H. Dromey




the identity crisis we all have waning moon

~Arvinder Kaur




my forgiveness a beast with too many heads

~Joana Figueiredo




another depth to the sunset orange bombing stops

~Arvinder Kaur




Kicking up clouds of dust I made promises I can’t fulfill

~Joana Figueiredo




soliloquy who do I think I am?

~John Hawkhead




long breakup again and again this mailer demon

~Arvinder Kaur




through the window life goes on

~Jennifer Gurney




juxta I have no position

~Sharon Ferrante




hearing my life in the lyrics the blues

~Jennifer Gurney




I am living in half delirium

for the third day in a row

I am running laps around my sanity

~Joana Figueiredo




Kitten died at the end of the day

Alive can't be that dead

Throat can't be that quiet

I buried a kitten in a computer box

Next to the grave without a cemetery, I planted a tree

I still remember how I called our son a kitten

In my old age, I will remember how I planted a tree, raised a son and built a new

house for my son

~Mykyta Ryzhykh


(Previously published in The Gorko Gazette)




trying to fix

my head with things

from the junk drawer

~Amber Winter




Summer evening—

a cicada sings in my town

silencing all its noise

~Tejendra Sherchan




transit ward

the nurse

moves

from one patient to the next

wearing the same gloves

~Tuyet Van Do




in the end

his claws

never scratched

the loneliness

out of me

~Joana Figueiredo




under the heat dome

does any damn fool

still say don't sweat it

~dan smith

 

 


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Afternoon of June 15, 2024

 

deadheading roses

how can

this much summer

have already

been lived

~Jennifer Gurney




flopped

on the bathroom floor

my mortal enemy

taking the cockroach in a cloth

I set him outdoors

~Madeleine Kavanagh




CVS pharmacy

elevator music

line of legal drug seekers

~Steve Van Allen




local market

a lady walking about

dabs

of foundation cream

on her face

~Tuyet Van Do




The faces I meet



A train at 4 a.m.

The call of the vein.

Different boulders.

Misunderstanding?


I open the door

And find a human-a glistening sardonic.


If I am happy, I am in a deathtrap.

~Partha Sarkar




I love the stone for the fact that he is steadfastly silent

I don't like people because they die


little birds kiss the glass of the universe

the world is a torn book in the hands of a child

~Mykyta Ryzhykh


(Originally published in Perceptions Magazine)




Calibrating Etymology


I used to close

with beat regards

but now beatitudes

seem more appropriate

~dan smith




No green in the clock



Once he protested alone against injustice and got defeated.

Then he thought he should protest collectively

And he joined the city of protest

And it is wise act

And it is positive.

congratulations!


But for a long time, I do not find any greenness in the clock.

~Partha Sarkar




bump stocks–

a major trigger

burning bright

~dan smith




lullabible

~Keith Evetts




shadow of a plane leaping trout

~Keith Evetts




no earthly reason why the moon

~Keith Evetts




it comes to me the cat

~Keith Evetts




the sky eats birds on the horizon

the bird shrinks to the size of a dot

the sun shines like a question mark

what will happen next?

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

 

(Originally published in Perceptions Magazine)




stepping off the train

with me

a vagabond pigeon

~Ranu Jain

 

 

Morning of June 14, 2024

 

TheCat Lady

~Kelly Moyer 

Photography available here




up close

to the crow's

knuckles

~Patrick Sweeney




turns out

you can take it with you

spoliation

~Jerome Berglund




the twisted stanines in my testing history

~Patrick Sweeney




election results macaques + sleight of hand

~Jerome Berglund




Every voter is nothing but a salained corpse



The consternation.

The helpless eyes or the greedy fleeing.

The same attire of the ages.

No new wings for, of, by people.

Only just a box to put something into. What?

None know.


Yet a queue...

A smoke billowing.

~Partha Sarkar




he was far too mathematical for reincarnation

~Patrick Sweeney




not always a bad thing crash test dummy

~Jerome Berglund




a rubber boat traveled on the waters

resistance fighters about to pull the trigger

shoot first, talk later

~Fhen M.




Zummer Evenèn



Zunlight whirlèn

Zummer Evenèn

Russlèn brook

Yollow flowerz

Storm clouds

Gather in orcha'd

Death no foe

Never can forget 'ee

Hearty vo'k zing

A zong ov rememberin'

~Olinda Ninolakis




in this part of the play, I'm the old man writing in the back room

~Patrick Sweeney




dead pixel cheese grater revisionism

~Jerome Berglund




so many triggers Shiva packing heat

~Jerome Berglund




Dog Float



I float therefore I am

My human is close at hand

She leaves me adrift on a float

All the swimmers know me

I am a canine boat


I do know how to swim

Swimmers look at me and grin 

But it's so nice to just

Observe the birds above

In humans I do trust

~Olinda Ninolakis




when we used to wonder who the pallbearers would be

~Patrick Sweeney




leaving Sheetz through the wrong door    the pretzels know the way

~Patrick Sweeney




the voice on the phone doesn't breathe

~Patrick Sweeney




a glance back and the mystic stumbles

  ~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

 


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Afternoon of June 12, 2024

 

The Insomniac

~Kelly Moyer 

Photography available here




sand grains

all her bullying

word by word

~Nicoletta Ignatti




obsessive compulsive disorder

lapping of waves

back and forth

~Nicoletta Ignatti




Renaissance Fair

costumed reenactors line up

at a porta-potty

~John J. Dunphy




marijuana dispensary

all its employees

highly trained

~John J. Dunphy




You have to love poetry

to be a poet.

But the only poems

I really love

are mine.

~Noah Berlatsky




flooded Golden Trumpets

all heaped on a drainage filter…

muddied and rotting

~Tejendra Sherchan




it was always fresh fish,

fresh meat, fresh fruits

served on an ancient table

~Fhen M.




then came a C Ration

imported, stateside

a fine range of canned foods

for not so sophisticated palates

~Fhen M.




a jungle of palm trees

turned to modern civilization

now an airport without airplanes.

~Fhen M.




I feel ashamed


The chirpings.

Birds come.

I spread crumbs.

They take them.

A mother-bird feeds a nestling.

A divine motherhood starts a day without war.


I feel ashamed of my human structure- The warmonger.

~Partha Sarkar




wordplaying with double entrées is appetizing

~Keith Snow




desert crackling orange peels tequila sunrise

~Elliot Diamond




haystack of a vacant moo

~Elliot Diamond

 

 


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