Afternoon of June 21, 2023

we were here

couch survivors

couched in delusive terms

~Leonard Zinovyev

dark nights seasoning the primordial soup

~Kelly Moyer

fibers of history generational itches

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

morning caress

i set out the sun tea

naked

~Kelly Moyer

Too Old

I think I’m too old

to get someone to teach me.

Not because I’m too old

for someone to teach me

but because when you’re old

you don’t want someone to teach you.

You know everything: that you’re old.

~Noah Berlatsky

B Positive



The problem, fleas, site titular,

is where there’s five; may well be more.

It’s boring when obsession grips,

the more so for their sawing tricks.

If only they were cochineal,

excuse to pulverise for blood,

though mine transfused if found and squeezed,

icing on cake, ‘B positive’.

~Stephen Kingsnorth

we never meant

for it to be a forever thing

carolina bamboo

~Kelly Moyer

Outsiders

She cleaned her windows twice a day,

scrubbed the step and polished brass,

blacked the grate, dared spiders’ web -

her itch, a tick, Ma’s box of tricks,

its vinegar, rags, elbow grease.

Her sin, took pity on the cat,

no pause, but welcomed to the cott,

more carrier than pigeon loft,

new squatters, hangers-on, the fleas.

That tick, her itch, outside control.

~Stephen Kingsnorth

Summer Is Dying

Outside, summer is dying into fall,

and blue daddy petunias sprout ears—

hear the beginning of night chills.

In their yellow window box,

they cuddle up and fear death together.

The balcony sliding door

is poorly insulated, and a cold draft

creeps into all the spare rooms.

~Michael Lee Johnson

Nearly full moon

Lovely in it’s almost wholeness

Reminds me of me

~Jennifer Gurney

science is questioning

mocking

challenging

threatening

[can anyone think of a better word please?]

our existential condition.

~Leonard Zinovyev

fairy bread

the glistening fingerprints

of a rainy-day child

~Kelly Moyer

Evening of June 19, 2023

unwinding from work

people tangled up

in dog leashes

~Stephanie Zepherelli

drained pond

frogs croak

to the rain god

~Suraj Nanu

Summer is

Fashionably late this year

Rain delay

~Jennifer Gurney

check inside you may already have died

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

getting to know him the length of a night

~Mona Bedi

zoo flute a mental plum

~J. D. Nelson

all four cookies the same misfortune

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

his words bite back rogue boomerang

~A.J. Anwar

opera pizza but a flower

~J. D. Nelson

she sits

with an alchemist

blending in

~Sharon Ferrante

the same prayer

from years ago

day moon

~Mona Bedi

fashion designing —

dad’s sigh

over my failed career

~Debarati Sen

The rain

Turned the path into

A new river

~Jennifer Gurney

June sun sprawled on the lawn

         the poem writes itself

~Herb Kitson

at the waterfall

I begin to sing

he throws

the guitar

over the cliff

~Sharon Ferrante

folk singer

her audience leaves when

the sign changes to 'walk'

~John J. Dunphy