Morning of September 17, 2023

all five faculties

what happens when you

don’t write things down

~Mark Gilbert

finding a soft spot in the icehouse of protracted pain

~Patrick Sweeney

tone in which the merchant said: we're not open

~Patrick Sweeney

the inner voyages of the bedridden sailor

~Patrick Sweeney

walking

between raindrops

white space

~Mark Gilbert

fire does not give rise to perspective

the birds don’t sing

autumn does not come

autumn from now on without legs without god without man

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in BarBar)

I would know Tom Wait’s

voice anywhere ...

all gravel and grit

~Jennifer Gurney

the universe is snow-winter

one day we will fall into the grave

slowly like snowflakes

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

clutter of neurons

thoughts

cling to the branches

~Mark Gilbert

after a trip to

the joke shop near Grandma’s house –

itching powder strikes

~Jennifer Gurney

a million fragments

each one labelled

with a memory

~Mark Gilbert

evidence of rickets deep in the bone texts of the Shang

~Patrick Sweeney

Metzenbaum scissors for the cut of his jib

~Patrick Sweeney

sandy beach scattered clouds a fake puppy runs toward the camera in slow motion

~Mark Gilbert

Afternoon of September 14, 2023

strange dream:

I spill a glass of wine

on Jack Kerouac

~Sharon Ferrante

Pyrites Pirate


I drink from the vessel,

casks of wine;

why leave it to the rats on board?

Pyrites Pirate, iron awe

to steal from sinking sailors,

wine-press gang.

~Stephen Kingsnorth

 

 

human extinction

and then life renews itself

no bones about it

~Robert Witmer

a young girl digs

discovers a fossil

marries him

~Sharon Ferrante

setting the bar

fairly low

a pagan funeral

in limbo

~Robert Witmer

paradice

the fruit of life’s gamble

snake eyes

~Robert Witmer

lace ships

harbor in a summer sky

mojitos by the sea

~Robert Witmer

in the sky something absurd

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

penthouse windows the rich know way of opening

~Robert Witmer

Space


⸮ With fewer words, more space for thought,

but space between the terms creates

prompts required for eroteme ?

~Stephen Kingsnorth

Colonial Power

rickety split

the banana tree

in the garden

uprooted

a ramshackle hurricane

snake eyes

in a pair

of loaded dice

~Robert Witmer

Evening of September 13, 2023

reliquary

the dog emperor

visits Earth

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

I Dew

We only eat olives

in the twilight,

just as the kittens

begin

to darn

their socks,

for certainty

is a lousy lover,

little more than

fodder for the plot.

~Kelly Moyer

cone fizzled out

we thought and breathed a sigh

Vesuvius

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

There are as many explosions as there are stars in the sky

Every night to underground storage and bunkers

An alarm siren sounds

 

Life is wonderful as if it started from an egg and not from a dead chicken

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

anniversary

of your death

stop texting me

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

removing

last sliver of hope

tweezers

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

the sway of curtains

leaving

claw marks on the moon

~Kelly Moyer

harvested field

strewn with dead sparrows

development

~Bipasha Majumder (De)

so much meaning

packed in the singular question –

why?

~Jennifer Gurney

Religion is a hobby club for those who have never died

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

shells on the beach war

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

open bellies conceal simple truths

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

tropical jungle death of a thousand sucks

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

unclaimed i tether myself to driftwood

~Kelly Moyer