Afternoon of June 26, 2023

first date a picture of a fly on the wall

~Kerry J Heckman

inside my shell he holds it up to his ear

~Kerry J Heckman

stirring up trouble earthworm

~Kerry J Heckman

another mass shooting the moon split in half

~Kerry J Heckman

no longer

the breadwinner

making bread

~Mark Gilbert

Speed and the lolling—

the silence between the words,

uh, delirious.

~Mark Gilbert

Bauhaus exhibition

bleeps from a pile

of children’s coats

~Mark Gilbert

gated community

trapped

by her obsessions

~Nancy Brady

vintage wine

—the best year 

we stepped on 

~Sharon Ferrante

wishbones shattering the overripe fruit at the edge of a dream

~Kelly Moyer

pixie dust the secret life of a wallflower

~Kelly Moyer

night rain

what's lost is not always

meant to be found

~Kelly Moyer

Afternoon of June 23, 2023

summer night

the motel ice machine

hums to itself

~John Pappas

first light hunched over the dream dictionary

~John Pappas

one dead leaf

completely crushed

into the sidewalk

~Kathy Watts

cobbler

his entire day spent repairing

a clown's shoe

~John J. Dunphy

My childhood

is now

an empty room.

~Theo Itchon

I'm sorry I left you behind.

And I'm sorry I'd do it again.

~Theo Itchon

it wasn't staring,

they took barely a peek,

half-hippos and half-hyenas

side-eyed us

~Rich Magahiz

piercing family tree mushrooms

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

counting my nevers in a tin box

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

The screen flickers.

I keep forgetting

that I'm a superspy.

~Noah Berlatsky

If Hemingway wrote

a manual for my slow cooker,

it would read,

order in tonight.

~Nolcha Fox

new moon

sweeping generalizations

out the door

~petro c.k.