Afternoon of May 2, 2023

dollhouse

my sister locks me

in the basement

~Daipayan Nair

quantization

the sunset begins

to pixelate

~Joshua St. Claire

Whenever trees freeze

I find words on their leaves.

~Bob Nimmo

demanding

to see his wife

man pounds and kicks

on the locked door at

the battered women's shelter

~John J. Dunphy

inner space

the place where

ideas are born

~Jennifer Gurney

aristocrap

~Joshua St. Claire

cold yesterday yet the stepping stones

~Minal Sarosh

postage stamp sky

letters

to forever

~Edward Cody Huddleston

Fleeing clouds

They did not come to war

They are the messengers

~Chineloromiheom Calista

after the battle

finding his friend

in pieces

~Stephanie Zepherelli

Juneteenth celebration

keynote speaker

concludes his address

by holding up

a broken chain

~John J. Dunphy

 

Morning of April 28, 2023

lost in thought

the fish

named after you

~Kelly Moyer

Cool spring breeze

clears the illusion

of this ephemeral world

~Steve Van Allen

giant panda divide

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

The tree shadow

Is scattered

I think

In spots.

~Noah Berlatsky

Once

you read the label

you know

the can of soup

contains 45%

of your daily sodium

Go ahead

buy two

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Ratty looking bird, rough break

out of an egg?

some mornings, I know how she feels

~Steve Van Allen

short straws appointing my successor

~Kelly Moyer

loading zone dandelions for the afterlife

~Kelly Moyer

Afternoon of April 27, 2023

 

she never sung to console

but took us to hilltops

to scream

~Lisa C Reynolds

the striking complexity in the syntax of the pathological liar

~Patrick Sweeney

bee stings and asteroids in the vocabulary of boys

~Patrick Sweeney

he had the look of a man who was sent out to play in thunderstorms

~Patrick Sweeney

she twirls


her fork spaghetti

for the win

~Naomi G. Tangonan

she whispered: samsara is the most beautiful word

~Patrick Sweeney

only say Tochigi and my soul will be healed

~Patrick Sweeney

just remembering

from the stone age

spin tirelessly

greedy cutting down recklessly

and the flood hit

~Nani Mariani

white trash

on the ground

the morning after

a cross-burning

singed KKK robes

~John J. Dunphy

communal riots —

the same sun

shines on us

~Debarati Sen

Deep in unnamed forests, deadly new

plagues mutate from beast to man, a rear

guard action to revenge their lost habitats

as we throw pennies at dying species or

jail them in our zoos.

~Janet Stotts

stale breakfast —

mom’s eye bags

wait for a rainbow

~Debarati Sen

water hazard

its ice cracked

by a golf ball

~John J. Dunphy

riverside

boardwalk park

taking pictures

a squirrel stops

to stare at the nut

~Christina Chin / M. R. Defibaugh

Past midnight

too late to write

a good poem.

~Noah Berlatsky