Afternoon of February 20, 2023

 

another night not sleeping beauty parlor tricks

~Susan Burch

but you were gasoline draped in cyanide

~Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

diarrhea my poo live-streaming

~Susan Burch

flea-fleece-emcee

~Robert Fleming

block party too many squares

~Susan Burch

tapping the bongos fish fingers

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

earworm my brain digging it

~Susan Burch

under the night sky forest bagpiper

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

playlist pops a tune

I’ve not heard for fifty years—

I know every word

~James Penha

almost forty

still learning

how to breathe

~Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

to feel // be 

night burning into

radium

~Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

i was and wasn't

the moth

~Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

Morning of February 20, 2023

Reborn as Toulouse goose – brief and unpleasant but not unwarranted.

~Jerome Berglund

sharpening the edge of consciousness an open palm

~Kelly Moyer

like a painting

 subject only becomes clear

after a great deal of oils have been

laid down upon a tautly stretched canvas

following much mess-making

you can paint on cardboard too

wood, any number

of sundry surfaces

~Jerome Berglund

Click?

 

Slam;

  

Grunt

 

Splash -

 

Thunk.

 

Grrrow…

 

Vroom.

 

Screech!

 

Chirp. Chirp.

 

Glub,

~Jerome Berglund

mollusks murdered in cold blood orange mignonette

~Kelly Moyer

please do not touch

the signs all say

as though any of this

would be here had

some archaeologist not;

alarm didn’t sound

for those burglars

who loots ever determines

whether overseers finds cause

for any concerted shooting

~Jerome Berglund

hour by hour the hang of a curtain

~Kelly Moyer

trash day the roar of a red bud rain

~Kelly Moyer

peace with the past a swollen cork

~Kelly Moyer

Afternoon of February 18, 2023

Every Minute

Every minute ends even

The fractured ones that

Fill up your little life.

~Dominik Slusarczyk

Resonances

Particles that exist for so little time

they're only recognized by the particles their decay

leaves behind.

~Noah Berlatsky

in and out —

she dips her beak

to sip yuzu

~Rupa Anand

death results may vary

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Bourbon cough

Lungs are booked up

With ulcers and cigarettes.

~K.G. Munro

sub zero night

the storm drops

a foot of snow

on top of

a foot of snow

~Christina Chin / M. R. Defibaugh

psychological

evaluation

itchy questions

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Pelicans

Awkwardly graceful

With their 9-foot wingspan and

Funny suitcase neck

~Jennifer Gurney

Evening of February 17, 2023

soliloquy talking to the demons from the other side

~Mona Bedi

new broom sweeping generalisations

~John Hawkhead

saying it as it is soothsayer

~Mona Bedi

big crunch

they wanted to try

a different universe

~John Pappas

at the seaside —

where does the sky

actually end?

~Ana Drobot

burying the dead weight of a pendulum

~John Hawkhead

under the Orion sky

the cat and I

in silence

~Françoise Maurice

bricked up windows I was young once too

~John Pappas

mayflies dying without religion

~John Hawkhead

tears that turned into stone silent rain

~Mona Bedi

 

 

migratory birds

lucky the ones who leave

or those who remain?

~Wai Mei Wong