Afternoon of January 22, 2024

 

introvert holding onto my exoskeleton

~Mona Bedi

Life is a spin in the dryer. I can be a dryer ball, banging my brain out in a heated drum. I

can be the lint that’s tossed in the trash. I can be my favorite sweater, ragged with

overuse, warm and ready for another day. It’s my choice.

~Nolcha Fox

the last time

I arrived early

preemie

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

shoulder to shoulder: air-dropping love notes

~Patrick Sweeney

house of cards queens at the window

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

I turn my head to see my shadow’s chin

~Glenn Ingersoll

twins

a year apart

nevermore

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

windows up, doors locked: passing through the bad neighborhood of my mind

~Patrick Sweeney

pole-vaulting polar extremes in my thrift-shop jacket

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

lapping waves

the conversations

we never have

~Mona Bedi

If I could only steal the moon

to stop the howling of the wolves.

~Fhen M.

sidewalk

as surprised as I am

a crow

~Françoise Maurice

he wanted the right of way in a random universe

~Patrick Sweeney

Afternoon of January 19, 2024

 

snowflakes on my tongue

the beginning

of a new language

~Michele Rule

wool blanket

I curl up without feeling

the itch

~Michele Rule

seeing the world as it really is mantis shrimp

~dan smith

the snake in my stomach is hunting a toy mouse

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

garden mouse

now I’m on the side

of the small things

~Timothy Daly

New Year’s Eve I drop before Times Square

~Jennifer Gurney

humility digs up the plague

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

p    r    o    c    r    a    s    t    i    n    a    t    i    o    n 

~Jennifer Gurney

I gave to the church

later the casino

certain I would win

~James Penha

you are the dream

of someone suffering

from insomnia

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

What if my life

is not wild and precious?

 

Leave my dumpy life alone.

~Noah Berlatsky

subzero night

scratching at my back door

the feral cat

~John J. Dunphy

sand fleas

how can I live with you

—it bites

~Sharon Ferrante

joining the circus flea-bitten dog

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

warning to a werewolf

you bark, you bite;

not considering

i am waiting until the

right moment to 

drive a silver stake through

your heart.

~linda m. crate 

The Potato Eaters,

my family in the old house.

~Fhen M.

when I started playing tunes

with test tubes

I knew I had to leave Britain

and science

so I quit my prestigious PhD

and moved to Paris

to become a mediocre philosopher

a distracted piano player

and an even worse

poet

~Timothy Daly

curious eyes

the dragon asks

if I’m real

~Sharon Ferrante

Afternoon of January 13, 2024

peeling off price tags new year

~Jerome Berglund

a devil’s claw¿

the little boy chortles

as Captain Hook

~Randy Brooks

piecing things together a cradle burning

~Jerome Berglund

space rendezvous the love language of machines

~Randy Brooks

statecraft fifty two pickup

~Jerome Berglund

robot parts

at the garage sale

a solar flare chime

~Randy Brooks

is there anything

worse than an empty

fortune cookie

~Jennifer Gurney

farm helmet

a widower in all

but actuality

~Jerome Berglund

orbiting on the cusp

of spring and winter

spider eyes

~Randy Brooks

freezing the vote new lows in democracy

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

pumpkin filling all saints

~Jerome Berglund

intermission

the lull between

my marriages

~Jennifer Gurney

someone in my head

leave a last mushroom

for wee folk

~Randy Brooks