Evening of March 12, 2023

puzzling out

the footprints in the snow

alien invasion

~Joshua St. Claire

family planning —

the awkwardness of

a relative's advice

~Daipayan Nair

a nightmare…

my red kettle

hums a lullaby

~Kavita Ratna

the crust bends    a borehole spurts syrup   

~Richard Magahiz

The cruelty of

Children can be staggering

With a single word

~Jennifer Gurney

How can a full moon

Wreak havoc on the playground

From so far away

~Jennifer Gurney

Have you ever tried

Writing a simple word and

It just looks all wrong?

~Jennifer Gurney

when these shackles

were forged, dodos wept —

O the shame

~Richard Magahiz

women's day the little old lady speaks alone

~Françoise Maurice

Indian curries

way of ghost pepper

from top to bottom

~Bidyut Prabha Gantayat

Stairway to Heaven

closed. Important construction

work about to begin.

~Oliver Kleyer

the door's friendly squeak in your wake

~Mirela Brailean

death asana—

my instinct

to survive

~Ram Chandran

not a soul

in the darkness

yet the fear...

~Sreenath

The switch

That silences the phone

Is broken.

What?

~Noah Berlatsky

marriage—

she packs her dreams

inside a garbage bag

~Debarati Sen

lullaby

she hums

to the empty cradle

~Debarati Sen

Dry lab

  slutter

  in the keypad 

  this is a re re re  

argus howls the horrible starlight

  flashblind

  at our feet the guts

  of a nebula

pickaxe strikes steel and that's how things end

~Richard Magahiz

Afternoon of March 12, 2023

the ruined embouchure of the dented tea kettle

~Patrick Sweeney

no contact drop off    in a lonely world

~Patrick Sweeney

daughter points to where Mount Fuji should be

~Patrick Sweeney

my rescue opera    two syllables

~Patrick Sweeney

 years spent    in the biographical subtext of fictional selves

~Patrick Sweeney

burning leaves

I wonder about

my soul

~John Pappas

on his boots

another county’s mud

spring offensive

~John Pappas

 

old polaroids a trip through thensylvania 

~John Pappas

night rain whispering all my faults

~John Pappas

 

late night thoughts

the hum

of the microwave

~John Pappas

from the pages

of a play

starlings

~John Pappas

 

sunflowers a correlation between brown rice and madness

~Kelly Moyer

despair accountable only to the toad

~Kelly Moyer

 

 

uncommon poetics buried with the bubble tea

~Kelly Moyer

breadcrumbs a far cry from the fairy tale

~Kelly Moyer

Evening of March 11, 2023

The Word Thieves

They came to our village

and carried off our words

in steel boxes wrapped in chains.

We were given new words,

but we cannot use them.

They taste like dirt in our mouths,

and do not mean what we need to say.

~Joseph Farley

Easter

in my neighbor's yard

surrounded by plastic eggs

rabbit ears

from an old TV

~John J. Dunphy

summer storm

he calls me

by another name

~Mona Bedi

It took me all day

to do nothing.

I could have

stayed in bed

to accomplish

just as much.

~Nolcha Fox

skirmish

gray squirrels battle in the dawn

balanced on a telephone wire

the definition of victory and loss

seems a tough nut to crack

~Joseph Farley

the when how and what of my thoughts

~Mona Bedi

the unseen cage I live in dandelion fluff

~Mona Bedi