Afternoon of December 8, 2024

Nobody Knocks



Nobody knocks.

New neighbor—

she didn’t know.

~Carla Schwartz

I do not want

your raw and honest poetry.

 

I want your poetry

overcooked and rubbery

and filled with lies.

~Noah Berlatsky

family plot

a semblance

of group therapy

~Carla Schwartz

hot water—

we are now entering

the mesopelagic zone

~dan smith

saying yes

to her imaginary friend...

summer's end

~Cezar Ciobîcă

Olympic games

a flea jumps off

my cat's fur

~Cezar Ciobîcă

the ghosts

that still haunt us

hunter's moon

~Cezar Ciobîcă

cat’s

whereabouts

a mystery

~Tejendra Sherchan

my vet tells me it’s time

~John J. Dunphy

too soon i arrive at a character

~Vijay Prasad

birdsong in my brainstem passes the Turing test

~D.W. Baker

When riding

Don’t look in

The rat king’s eyes

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Nothingness

Of a vast night sky

Yet it’s everything

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Our Nominations for The Red Moon Anthology

(November)

yielding to the futility of helping an autumn fly escape

~Patrick Sweeney

(October)

our squares

in different circles

mockingbirds

~Joshua St. Claire

(September)

one minute from yesterday  a lonely pronoun

~Vijay Prasad

(August)

Earth again at last


herds of bison keep


radio silence

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

(July)

IVF clinic —

this feeling

of not being enough

~Debarati Sen

(June)

contemplate the moon

but don't let the neighbors see you

taking notes

~Patrick Sweeney

(May)

unfazed

the moon has so little

left to say

~Kelly Moyer

Best of luck to these talented nominees!

Evening of December 3, 2024

 

Fractals

I am a flower.

Bent beneath the sky, I thirst!

I am also rain.

~Silvatiicus Riddle

I am impressed at your vast and calculated indifference.

~Noah Berlatsky

rice pudding because it comes with the meal

~Patrick Sweeney

wealth management

investing in sea-monkeys

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

From now on I will eat only pie.

~Noah Berlatsky

barbed wire the morning glory entwines and blooms over

~Tejendra Sherchan

the palm reader's lucky guess

~Patrick Sweeney

Are you just going to leave that there?

~Noah Berlatsky

sometimes life is

the runny part of an

undercooked fried egg

~Jennifer Gurney

reconciliation

we seek a deeper meaning

as the moon shadow

crosses

the sun

~Wanda Amos

morning brew...

thoughts sifting

through coffee grains

~Katherine E Winnick

autumn deepens

the color

of a leaf

~Madeleine Kavanagh

sunset

a noble wine

in the grape stomper's purple feet

~Robert Witmer

in spite of

closing arguments

opening night

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

passing the window

again and again

goldfish

~Robert Witmer

Haiku

a box full

of nothing

~M. R. Pelletier

 

 

Afternoon of November 29, 2024

 

Handiwork

~Kelly Moyer and Hunter Sauvage

the roar of traffic

rushing by

platelets in the bloodstream

~Melissa Dennison

                                recovery

                                e                                 

                                l

                                a

                                p

                                s

                               recovery

                                           e   

                                           l

                                           a

                                           p

                                           s

                                           e                                              

~John J. Dunphy

Problems to face

In a gilded cage

The moment hidden

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Watching cityscapes

Fade back into stardust

Tell me why

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Don’t be afraid

To be a stiletto

In a room of flats

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Coffee gone cold

Where did all the hope

Run off to?

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

the frog

won’t vanish in

my mind

~Noah Berlatsky

hide and seek

        the shadows charm

an elfish moon

~Elliot Diamond

only planet tending to rise from the west the Venus

~Tejendra Sherchan

fingers don't know how not to love your hair

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

Shrieks cut the night__

Forest silent in respect

Even the trees know

~Beth Ramos

globe warming another new year in the gasp of twelve gongs

~Rashmi VeSa

what ifs and why nots ribboned road

~Rashmi VeSa

defining

her shelf life…

the matrimonial column

~Rashmi VeSa

picking one more bone of contention sidewalk crows

~Rashmi VeSa

Brushing Aside the Curtain

Let's look at this another way, he said,

It's not which side of the mirror is real,

but which you'd prefer to inhabit,

and who you have to kill to stay there.

That's when I knew:

I'd go out with him again,

I'd trust him with my dog,

I'd let him drink my blood,

but I could see by the third drink,

I'd never be good enough for him.

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

the dead sign on

radio clears its

low-bandwidth throat

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Happiness—

a butterfly’s journey

crushes in seconds

~Patricia Carragon

heavy rain

seven blackbirds on a wire

melt into black puddles

~Steve Van Allen

desperate fly

lands on my burger

it is november

and i can understand

the desire to just hang on

but, fly,

you made a bad decision

so did i

now i have a crushed fly

embedded in my bun

~Tom Blessing

coffee shop drive thru

three ravens wait beside the window

for their treats

~Tom Blessing

silent meditation

the dog looks at me

and whimpers

~Tom Blessing

Afternoon of November 28, 2024

 

 

 

the sound

of November-December

whoosh

~Jennifer Gurney

endless

stratus

clouds

rolling

in

worry

about

my

root

canal

~Joshua St. Claire

fate

of the dandelion

growing out of rocks

~Tejendra Sherchan

high tea

Vivaldi plays through the cracks

in the universe

~Joshua St. Claire

tattered trainers

the secrets

you could tell

~Melissa Dennison

the egg moon

I will boil and share it

with eight billions

~Tejendra Sherchan

not yet returned all the stolen hearts

~Tejendra Sherchan

the smoker moth

~Tejendra Sherchan

Why

why did you choose me, my soul

why did you choose me to live

~Marie Derley

In The Time of Corporate Plague

water and light

now company owned

people figuratively and literally

being daily deboned

murmurs of time

ache to be heard

no calm in the mirrors

all the lines blurred

silent mental erosion

of blind civil obedience

~dan smith

Zombies Flee the Scene

 

hearses!

foiled again!

undead get away

~John H. Dromey

nothingness

the universe

bang

~Jennifer Gurney

big bang —

the hole punch

spills its contents

~Helen Buckingham

Folksong

after Else Lasker-Schüler

 

The wild wind knows

it’s the sky’s favorite child.

Its curls are sun-yellow,

its intentions are mild.

 

Each day is a day.

My parents are gone.

The wind plays on their graves.

It sings them no song.

~Noah Berlatsky

gone gone gone —

the black cat’s shadow

on the grass

~Pris Campbell

the new Oz show

is carried on the backs

of snake oil salesmen

into the While House.

on cue, the audience applauds.

~Pris Campbell

saying her piece

the booyah

across seven seas

~A.J. Anwar

haiku

the extent

of her bio

~A.J. Anwar

childhood Santa photos

I finally find one where

I'm not crying

~John J. Dunphy

luminous glyphs

scrolling down

his firm midsection

~Richard Magahiz

in his later years

Adam's

cider addiction

~Richard Magahiz

herbaceous border

a sign to

curb your dragon

~Richard Magahiz

holes chewed through old holes:    hyperspace worms    

~Richard Magahiz

in 30s gangster movies

nobody practices

personal space

~Patrick Sweeney

he was learning to play what wasn't there

~Patrick Sweeney

yielding to the futility of helping an autumn fly escape

~Patrick Sweeney

resisting the ideological cul de sac

and the personification

of hurricanes

~Patrick Sweeney

Lose the way

to home?

Ask cul-de-sac.

~Partha Sarkar

You mean to tell me this is how you intend spending your time on Earth?

~Patrick Sweeney

best not to mention the extra-dimensional deer paths that run behind the house

~Patrick Sweeney