Afternoon of November 28, 2023

 

I tell myself

it was just an earring–

but I lost you again

~Jennifer Gurney

Black Friday

woman pushes

her shopping cart into

a homeless encampment

~John J. Dunphy

the grays in my eyebrow silverfish

~Susan Burch

kingfishers arc-welding shards of sky

~John Hawkhead

Taylor Swift fans too chimney swifties

~Susan Burch

This is not a swipe.

~Noah Berlatsky

breaking silence fallen leaves

~Marc Brimble

paper or plastic Barbie’s watching

~Susan Burch

30% chance

just as I sit on a bench

100% rain

~Christa Pandey

Frost flowers blooming

Ghosts growing in the cold air

The sunlight takes them

~Sam Calhoun

blood-letting

selling A positive

to pay the rent

~John Hawkhead

Nembutal nights

slipping into deep currents

of wish fulfilment

~John Hawkhead

Roach Lines

Open the kitchen drawer

there you are

slipping across silver cutlery

like a pitch pebble

skimming a lake

or

beneath the dishwasher

among

crap dirt bogies debris

~Marc Brimble

exchanged words

a gradual vowel-shift

in endearments

~John Hawkhead

rolling news

the world spins on its axis

repeating itself

~John Hawkhead

Big Brown Eyes

Don’t believe that sweet expression.

Notice that his claws are splayed.

He just buried the cat.

~Nolcha Fox

 

Morning of November 28, 2023

Very Little

 

I believe in very little.

I believe in love

but only a little

and love is one of the

littlest things of them all.

~John Tustin

 

Invoice

Quadruple checking lines & limbs

Triple sanding *all affected areas*

Staining + double top coat passim

Complete the entire restoration

during a < single > work session.

Declare soulful recovery.

Parts and Labor: $ 1, 234.00
~Charles A. Perrone

Watching the Clouds

 

I want to die

in a way

that I never could have lived –

 

lying on my back,

watching the clouds

~John Tustin

inner peace

 

by teasing out

and shunning reason

be cartesian

discartesian

ever pleasing

never easing

off this pledge

beyond the ledge

and natural edge

no fine line to draw

~Charles A. Perrone

the morning after

vultures hang

their wings out to dry

~Sarah Paris

 

 

In This Moment

 

In this moment

there is just enough room here

for a purring cat,

some music,

a bird that cries distantly,

the wind shaking local trees,

a cup of coffee,

the waning sun,

me,

nothing else.

~John Tustin

Morning of November 24, 2023

 when she's around you half expect a yellow canary to fly into the room

~Patrick Sweeney

mermaid 

they called me mermaid 

because i answered

the call of the sea,

but they never heard her;

i guess that's why 

they don't understand

my depths.

~linda m. crate 

ultrasound

my inner world

on the display screen

~Arvinder Kaur

coping with cancer —

the nail polish brighter

than last time

~Rupa Anand

too much

i was always told i

was too much by 

people who i thought

could be more,

if you should ask me

the only thing there's too much

of is: bombs, genocides, wars,

cruelty, malice, indifference, and greed.

~linda m. crate 

until they crawl in next to you   the sorrows of the world

~Patrick Sweeney

ravages of war

the straight face

of AI anchor

~Arvinder Kaur

autumn sky —

this desire to return

to the womb

~Debarati Sen

no money in poetry

no poetry in money

this is not a poem

nor money neither

~Noah Berlatsky

dark river

an oar scoops dead fish

in its spoon

~Rupa Anand

goddess 

you thought yourself

a god who could

mold me into your image,

you were surprised

to find i was a goddess

who could sculpt myself

into whatever image that suited me.

~linda m. crate  

dowry demands —

dad curses the day

I was born

~Debarati Sen

Smile

Body language continues our argument.

Uber guy says, “You ladies should smile more,

pretty girls like you.”

“What about the uglies─ should they smile, too?”

My sister sits up perpendicular, bares her teeth and growls.

The driver crashes into a STOP sign, slurring the word “Stop”

as if it too is skidding.

~Cheryl Snell

she doesn't want me to throw away the small pieces of soap

~Patrick Sweeney

moon shadow cognitive dissonance
~Jennifer Gurney

the inner jewelry of old telephone wires

~Patrick Sweeney

on the other side of sadness anger

~Jennifer Gurney

kissing the piggy that had roast beef

~Patrick Sweeney

I remind the moon

and all to wear a mask—

covid is waxing

~James Penha

solar noon

the donkey claims the win

for himself

~Françoise Maurice

stillness

in the room

even silence has a sound

~B. L. Bruce