Morning of May 20, 2024

 

high-rise balcony—

a potted plant leans

towards the edge of escape

~Nalini Shetty

The Alternate Universe Routine

William S. Burroughs

does stand-up

Lenny Bruce

writes novels

WSB doesn't kill his wife

Lenny never gets arrested

~dan smith

Revenge of madness

Little gophers of construction in the palm of hopes


Guns screamed

The end of all roads

We swam out to drown

The only prospect is waiting

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Tipton poetry Journal )

One or two glowworms

The squinted looks

Throughout the day.

Where should I flee?

Comes the evening.

I hide behind the undergrowth.

There are one or two extinct glowworms.

I get shelter and save my identity.

~Partha Sarkar

counting flower petals thinking about Ophelia trying to stay sane

~Joana Figueiredo

crushing my eyelids together my refusal to cry

~Joana Figueiredo

mad woman

casting ashes to the wind

grieving myself

~Joana Figueiredo

You don't come home

You don't come to the neighbors

You don't come to me

You don't come to your senses

You can't take out the trash

You don't clean your ears

Looks like I died

Inside your head

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Tipton poetry Journal )

dead black beetle

inside Angel’s Trumpet--

a blissful death

~Tejendra Sherchan

dragging my legs home

all my flickering lights

about to go out

~Joana Figueiredo

all the way to Mars

Fido dreamed of the wind

on his face

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

one more asteroid

nudged across Earth's orbit

dirty pool

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

So Here We Are

under the bright moon

tearing apart this sheep

our partners

and bare-skinned children

toss in their beds

dream of monsters

with human faces

and long sharp teeth

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

The Ghost of Phil Ochs Floats Over Lincoln Park Like Tear Gas

four days in August 2024

fifty-six years on

~dan smith

At last dies every day the innocent

At last died the innocent.

It had been suffering for a long time

Perhaps from helplessness

Or one of its souls might be broken by Time.

However I put it on the grass by the dustbin

And despite being sad, I wait for another tonight

With my companion - the sad note of saxophone.

~Partha Sarka

empty nest

in a bead tree—

egg moon above

~Tejendra Sherchan

milk moon

her tender gaze I drink

almond beverages now

~Madeleine Kavanagh

wi-fi signals

connecting everyone

yet not connecting

~Nalini Shetty

this poem

will not be written

by anyone because the author

will go to the supermarket for vodka

and never come back

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Tipton poetry Journal )

crowded subway—

our eyes meet and then retreat

alone together

~Nalini Shetty

A bird doesn't know it's a bird.

A stone doesn't know it's a stone.

Like them, I know who I am.

~Noah Berlatsky

watercress

every time I open the fridge

there you are

~Madeleine Kavanagh

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