Afternoon of October 20, 2024

 

Poet Empty Bottle

~Michael Lee Johnson

ugh

go away

mirror

go away

ugh

~Noah Berlatsky

In Praise of Wooden Shoes or Where's a Luddite When You Need One

~dan smith

self-employed no one to complain to

~Stacy Taylor

we are the movies at God's multiplex

~dan smith

my eye-hops on her textual surface around the target words

~Vijay Prasad

68 years old

and don’t feel a day

over 67

~Stacy Taylor

Origami

If my paper hen could lay eggs,

how would the eggs be folded?

~Marie Derley

Hands

Guts in one,

the weight of the world

in the other.

So much to bear.

So much to feel.

Fingers twitching,

nails clawing.

Flesh against flesh.

Is this what a grip is for?

~R James Sennett Jr

shorter nights

little space for shooting stars

at our age

~John Hawkhead

we built gigantic engines

we travelled to the moon

we misunderstood Waste Not

~dan smith

if it's true

what Christians say

I'm going to hell

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

mending an old quilt

each night’s sleep cycle

a little deeper

~John Hawkhead

shine on

forty-foot cowboy

exit now

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

foggy shore . . . 

memory’s silence

eroding my belief

in goodbyes

~Timothy Daly

Photon

Because the soul is light, scurrying from point to shadow,

because light can fracture if interrupted—

because the fracturing of light is accomplished by hanging 

a simple glass charm from the curtain rail above my kitchen sink—

I think of you, driving down the mountain, the long, straight

road from map-point to city, your dashboard charm swinging,

your headlight fractured, your mirror cracked.

~Kathryn Reese

subglacial lake

the gelatinous maw

everts

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

unedited

I want to say love me

love my text,

consider converting

all the selfies

on my dating profile

to screenshots of poems.

~Kathryn Reese

blind date

she looks for

a way

to let him

down gently

~Randy Brooks

any old pot

of coffee

I drink it

on ice

the day after

~Randy Brooks

don’t think

of a monkey

too late

~Randy Brooks

 

Afternoon of October 17, 2024

 

chronologically displaced the now of her body

~Vijay Prasad

A Bare Leaf

All the ants have our backs.

The giants without speech wouldn’t

Dare squash us now.

~Dominik Slusarczyk

Harsh words follow tears

Objects fly smashing down hard

A fly on the wall

~Jiel Narvekar

our yule log

flames consume

the 1990s

~John J. Dunphy

A Man Called Toothbrush

bristles

at the thought

of death

ignorant

of the fact

Sylvia Plath

would never

write a poem

about him

~dan smith

late-night thoughts

scratching at the walls

of my skull

~Nalini Shetty

news cycle—

we chew the same fears

again and again

~Nalini Shetty

chasing a buzz

through tangled wires—

still no spark

~Nalini Shetty

country cemetery

a tombstone epitaph

crumbling into brevity

~John J. Dunphy

for years she paints pictures

writes prose and poems

invisible

~Susan Pope

the kettle whistles

mouth dry

she whispers his name

~Susan Pope

Magician

 

Make magic with me.

If we wish hard

Enough we can

Summon rabbits

Wearing tuxedos.

The rabbits will

Know what we

Should conjure next.

~Dominik Slusarczyk

The Light

 

There is a light

Right at the

Bottom.

Sometimes I

See it when

I’m sleeping.

It talks to me:

It says we feel

The same pain.

~Dominik Slusarczyk

spilled ink

pooling between pages—

the moon half-full

~Nalini Shetty

eyelash on my thumb

I make a wish—

the wind takes it first

~Nalini Shetty

stale cereal

a spoonful of routine

to start the day

~Nalini Shetty

country-by-country—

one dream jumps

around the forest

~Ernesto P. Santiago

writer’s block . . .

I shake the jar really hard

to free the fireflies

~Ernesto P. Santiago

We Were Led Past Prickly Bushes

 

I never pretended to know.

I only pretended the

Lights shone when they did not.

 

I needed to see another

Stream sauntering across stones.

 

Those who know don’t

Know they know.

~Dominik Slusarczyk