Morning of May 18, 2024

 

~Jerome Berglund

the alloy steel hips

pitched well forward

the groomsmen

checked for

perpendicularity

~Richard Magahiz

my mistress' eyes

are nothing like

fuel pellets

~Richard Magahiz

in tissue temples  pasteboard altars

~Richard Magahiz

there could have been

only the one sun

but no

~Richard Magahiz

glass, vodka-clear,

slicing gold with a

bamboo edge

~Richard Magahiz

Dark purple, deep purple, adolescent angst

Dark purple, deep purple, menopausal freedom

Say what comes into your head, no filter, no mask

Don't think twice, follow your heart, no need to ask

Dramatic colour of ritual and rite

Dramatic colour stolen in the night

No pastel tones, no wishy-washy clones

In your face, purple is no disgrace

~Olinda Ninolakis

old age

like adolescence

home by nine

~Chris Collins

Hope stealers

They pluck the sun

right out of the sky

~Angela Evans

Poetry trigger

Middle of the night

nausea

~Angela Evans

Barbie love

Women rule

in a dream house

~Angela Evans

urban birdsong

harmonizing with

traffic

~Jennifer Gurney

horns twisted by some strong half-god

carabao lies on the grassland

~Fhen M.

when, invaders, are, near,

they may run

~Fhen M.

when proper channels

have been diverted...

connect four

~Jerome Berglund

solar flares

tinfoil

on the tube

~Jerome Berglund

blues harp

different kinds

of flight risk

~Jerome Berglund

 

Afternoon of May 16, 2024

 

The Overlord

~Kelly Moyer
 
Photography available here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

spring storm—

the dialogue interrupted

by a short circuit

~Nicoletta Ignatti

flea

it danced it here now there again

and sprang its music deep upon me

i speak i speak i speak i speak

sucking out a sip of me for it to live

a fat disgust a hot sink drowning

a crushing between fingernails

i this god dispense

in answer to its helpless daring

while i this flea am honoured here

in answer to my need

and worse and worse expect it

~Harry Owen

Springtime spiders, cute and small,

skitter up the hallway wall,

kitchen counter, kitchen chair,

weft their webs within your hair.

~Terry Trowbridge

red traffic light

sitting behind the motorist

a zip-tied barbie

~Tuyet Van Do

dry gin the empty quarter in my mind map

~John Hawkhead

 

 

in the desert (when I stop thinking of it) an oasis

~Arvinder Kaur

 

 

carbon credit to absolutely no one

~John Hawkhead

clothes shopping —

the men in dire need

of a woman

~Maurizio Brancaleoni

I see a silent film star

working in a shop

She tends the till, wraps the gifts.

She looks up slightly to the left

never straight at me.

Her skin is celluloid

The day is black and white

~Sarah Davies

GPS tells me

I am on the fastest route

to perdition

~James Penha

deserted island

i'm not

a man so maybe

i'm an island,

hopefully a deserted one;

i don't want people

walking all over me.

~linda m. crate

no wonder the lily

blooms just for a day

this world of men

~Arvinder Kaur

BE WARNED

if you’re

sitting by yourself

in a coffee shop

and reading

something by

Thomas Pynchon

I cannot be

responsible

for my

undivided

attention

~John Grey

 

Closure

~Michael Lee Johnson

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