Morning of May 12, 2024

Psychic Grief


diehard pessimist

her spirit animal

is a dead duck

~John H. Dromey





the latest fashion

a search for identity

in a differential equation

~Robert Witmer




a dragon bone?

the little girl returns

a curtsy

~Randy Brooks




Yellow press or gutter newspapers

Custard, mustard, lemon meringue pie

Book pages yellowed by the heat

Yellow spots on the mirror's surface

Yellow sun full of midday beach time glamour

Yellow moon risen to brighten nighttime pallor

Yellow skin sickened by jaundice

Yellow fingers stained by tobacco

Yellow Hockney crocs my word

Yellow is wonderful and absurd

~Olinda Ninolakis




Alas! war is not responsible


Fleeing poor in the election.

A weak and sick crawling kitten in democracy.

It rains after the prolonged heatwave.

Yet a mixed fleeing- Will an innocent get a perfect green cottage?


An eternal conscience!


I suffer because of the lack of green.


Alas! war is not responsible for that.

~Partha Sarkar




Doubt Sourcing


A.I.dentity crisis

~John H. Dromey




the contrasts

the symmetry

but Shane

never comes back

~dan smith




walk-in clinic

already seated in the waiting room

my one-night stand

~John J. Dunphy




Poison Pen Letter


venomous words

in tightly-wound cursive coils

waiting to strike

~John H. Dromey




                     stillpoint

                a brief refuge . . .

            in the hurricane eye

~Stephanie Zepherelli




a child

the cat

catastrophic

collapse

her community

~Wanda Amos




afternoon sun

a monkey family

grooming each other

so delicious

the fat fleas

~Wanda Amos




the wheel without the sun one could be

~J. D. Nelson




dandelion parking the drive-in theatre

~Randy Brooks




parakeet angle you redundant you

~J. D. Nelson




gurgling brook who’s a good baby stream

~Susan Burch




grain chain the world after next

~J. D. Nelson




campaign logic as strong as an oxymoron

~Robert Witmer




that name suddenly one hundred prowling frogs

~J. D. Nelson




flapdoodle morning

making my way

to malarkey

~Susan Burch

Afternoon of May 8, 2024

 

constellation, an endless source of food

my pocket as empty as my stomach.

~Fhen M.




in spite of it all

student debt

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




Listen


If you carve a poem on a tree in a forest and

the tree falls on you and

you and the tree decay together over a hundred years.

Mushrooms grow out of your eyes.

Mushrooms grow out of your eyes.

Mushrooms grow out of your ears.

What was I saying?

~Noah Berlatsky




circling

their cubicles

customer service reps

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




the crispness

of his meat skewers…

al Dante

~David Cox




I am Orion & with my dog

hunt meat & fish in the sea of stars

~Fhen M.




Loving you 41


In

a

coal

mine

the

canary's

last

breath.

~Matt Borczon




Loving you 26


the

truth

only

dogs

know

~Matt Borczon




Loving you 22


wishing

it

was

easier.

~Matt Borczon




Loving you 11


screaming

into

an

empty

church.

~Matt Borczon


Morning of May 8, 2024


tornadoes in a rain forest

hurricanes in a desert

murky muki

~dan smith




this isa

sorta true poem

about art where

it comes from

what it's for


nothing

i can answer

in under two decades

apparent

ly

~Scott F. Parker




Children's Games

             

            Vanilla or Chocolate?

            Chocolate or Strawberryy?

            I don't want any of these.

            I want Caramel which is never offered.


            It's been a life-long habit--

            always wanting to reframe

            the problem, the issues, the choices,

            whatever.................

~Karen Klein




   o u 

s        p

in      us 

     it

~dan smith




hard-won fortune

pissing against the pub wall

an errant heir

~Mike Gallagher




Poe, a tree!



There! Look!

Behind you!

To the left and to the right!

Ahead and above!

Inward and beyond!

~Scott F. Parker




cemetery wind

a lifetime of wishes

blown away

~Mona Bedi




The early bird

gets the senior spaghetti special

at Luigi’s, 4 PM sharp.

~Nolcha Fox




lying here

wondering whether

it's the outer thigh

looking up

or the inner thigh

looking down

I'm feeling

it really doesn't matter

now that we've reached

a certain age

~Mike Gallagher




dancer pigeonholed

as too old

bitter lemons

~Karen Klein




it's raining

in the poem

about rain

and the

one

about that

too

~Scott F. Parker




northbound geese

a neon open sign

flickers

~Mariel Herbert




first to flip the switch / next to absorb the colors / neon light special

~Charles A. Perrone




all those languages we do not know for a start birdsong

~Mike Gallagher




past the life we led before we led our lives

~Mona Bedi




Dusk falls, new moonlight, stars, planets and hope arise.

~Keith Snow




note from the mass grave

thankfully

we were not the killers

~Mike Fainzilber