Evening of September 8, 2023

 Tickle


I feel the tickle

of stars in cells

I never knew

I was comprised of.

~Kate Langan

daily bus ride

the tobacco stained smile

of the bus driver

~Mona Bedi

No Mercy

Her fun

dam-entals

were laid down

in the for

mative years

of her youth

and honed

in the bat

tles of life.

~Kate Langan

where no one comes looking wildflowers

~Mona Bedi

shining the knife before placing on the table    divorce papers

~Arvinder Kaur

in the middle of it all stream of consciousness

~Arvinder Kaur

insomnia the world I have made inside me 

~Mona Bedi

blue moon always plus one

~JL Huffman

…and he says he loves another version of me

~Mona Bedi

Deceased

A year ago, she ceased

taking the elixir of air

into pink lungs

and died, finally

succumbing to the tempting

invitation of her diseased heart,

proffered over the two

indifferent years preceding,

and became deceased.

~Kate Langan

Bones

I am so full of noise inside

I rattle when I walk.

~Kate Langan

selfies

accidental pictures

of my feet

~Linda L Ludwig

holding the shape of his bunion grandpa's moccasins

~Arvinder Kaur

Shoo

Anger all evening

eating up the space

between the brain cells!

Get you gone

~Kate Langan

Afternoon of September 5, 2023

conference room

a dozen zombies deciding

who to fire

~Ruth Holzer

holding the world together human rights

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Fairy Tales

 

I never did get the chance

to write a poem last night

because I was too busy

reading to my kids

before bed

in an attempt

to make time stand still.

But it never does,

not for art

and not even for love.

~Gabriel Bates

running with stencils Banksy

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

yellow is the taste

of sunshine

after a long rain

~Jennifer Gurney

mashed in the mammogram machine lunar eclipse

~Ruth Holzer

changing the shape of things a little silicone

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

girls night out

too many margaritas…

waking

to a hangover and

the sour scent of lime

~Wanda Amos

climbing Mt. Tam

I trail behind

planning

to betray you

just because I can

~Ruth Holzer

Afternoon of September 4, 2023

the perpetual vigilance of God's own worrywart

~Patrick Sweeney

corroded bones reducing me to rust

~Debbie Strange

the frugal argot of bricklayers at lunch

~Patrick Sweeney

gingerbread house crumbs on the carpet

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Hesse on the lips of the Braille reader

~Patrick Sweeney

where are philosophers supposed to park

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

AI winter : everything nothing but a memory

~Debbie Strange

AI mispronounces the town where people live

~Patrick Sweeney

buzzwording this deep dive into a cloud of fish

~Debbie Strange

room enough for bull frogs to breathe through their skin at the Oriental Market

~Patrick Sweeney

pleading guilty to defacing public restrooms with abstruse senryu

~Patrick Sweeney

hung with care jury

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

from out of nowhere

the grizzly bear

and a bicycle

~Debbie Strange