Morning of October 4, 2023

 promises broken roads named for presidents

~John Pappas

what's left of me after right and wrong

~Deborah Karl-Brandt

utility of scarecrow as kigo

~Patrick Sweeney

the right side of my brain a rainy sycamore

~Patrick Sweeney

back home the memory of wind

~Mona Bedi

                                up

rollercoaster 

                                            and down

                                                                     these 

                                                                                       moods

~Stephanie Zepherelli

family graveyard

parts of me

already buried

~Mona Bedi

the peeling label

on the old beer bottle

death poem

~John Pappas

i can’t swim

don’t place me in water,

scatter me…no

place me under a tree

so I may hear birdsong

~Wanda Amos

death poem the empty aquarium’s hum

~John Pappas

getting through another day without satori

~Patrick Sweeney

it's not only me the psychiatrist’s visit

~Mona Bedi

clock-watchers in windowless rooms

~Patrick Sweeney

buffalo nickels    I'm stuck between numismatics on a train

~Patrick Sweeney

where brambles wind

spindles of brier and barb

our intertwined tongues

~John Hawkhead

summer heat

a fan cools

what's left of me

~Deborah Karl-Brandt

the loquacious defendant

gags upon receiving

a gag order

~John J. Dunphy

Morning of October 3, 2023

truth at times snow

~LeRoy Gorman

the raven is watching you      always watching you

~Tom Blessing

getting a lop-earned foothold shoe horn

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

drowning in memory autumn rain

~LeRoy Gorman

I can’t remember when I stopped remembering the scent of violets

~Joshua St. Claire

big

            boned

moon

            i

block

            the

last

            fatphobe

~Adele Nwankwo

republicanism

reminding me to renew

my birth control

~Adele Nwankwo

raking sand runes

with toy shovels

foretelling Wall Street

~Elliot Diamond

the viral myth

of a warty toad

lunar craters

~Elliot Diamond

that wheels-up moment–

when anything

is possible

~Jennifer Gurney

“Stand” Fast, Ketanji!

 

An angel afloat, kneeling in prayer in a pool of adversaries;

arms willing to embrace all in spite of stinging waters affronting her face.

 

Never flinching or turning away;

N’er a complaint  day-after-day

 

With silent authority

   she remains, called and purposed.

~Suzanne S. Austin-Hill

Barbie

Hollywood sign

turns pink

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

phosphenes

no I won’t listen

to what you have to say

~Joshua St. Claire

return to the office

everyone

is a different height

~Joshua St. Claire

he said "try this"

and got down on his knees

and was gone

~Tom Blessing

Evening of September 28, 2023

 

a bunch of rocks

in a jar

she names

each

one

This is Lucy.

~Kimberly Kuchar

first extraterrestrial film star

his handprints in cement show

all 12 fingers

~John J. Dunphy

floating his boat

as tea steeps

in a far-away universe

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

The week casts a long shadow.

It talks of rain and cats and dogs.

The week stops by the bar

for a long one, gin and tonic,

one drink, maybe two.

~Nolcha Fox

14-year-old hitchhiker

all his possessions

in a garbage bag

packed by

his parents

~John J. Dunphy

autumn evening

I look for hair colour

every now and then

~Bipasha Majumder (De)

fell asleep

in the sky

lightness of being

~Jennifer Gurney

Small lethargic fellow in the grass

late fall morning

not the season for a cold blooded baby

~Steve Van Allen

too much Deet wishing it was citronella finch legs stiff to the sky

~Elliot Diamond

little hamster,

what kind of secrets

do your cheeks hold?

~Kimberly Kuchar