Morning of June 25, 2024

 

we’ve rolled together

bounced off each other a few times

but eventually settled

in this U-shaped valley

where the stream meanders to the sea

~Mark Gilbert

 

 

all this dusk burning my story

~Tiffany Elise

solstice or the inferno of same same

~Tiffany Elise

'Glacier is dead...'

Frightens the human stomach

The last message

From the river

For farming.

~Partha Sarkar

security

that gorgeous jazz

my bank plays me

to placate me soothe me

calm me down

distract me convince me

everything’s going to be fine

 

If you would like to hear ambient birdsong instead of jazz music please press 1 now.

~Mark Gilbert

I once saw bound bouquets

of blue roses at a market

as a child

so many years ago

that now it feels like

it was another person

puzzling over their indigo petals

~Simon Kaeppeli

now heavy reading

the paperback beach novel

drenched by the tide

~John J. Dunphy

Urban design



Polished streets

Streamlined for efficient traffic

Darkened windows fail to catch the eye

Nothing to see here

A homeless man is ushered away

Lest he would make people think

~Simon Kaeppeli

god’s waiting room

a crossword puzzle

with the easy ones

already filled in

by somebody else

in the queue

~Mark Gilbert

I list

my car for sale –

very same day

check engine light

comes on

~Jennifer Gurney

and maybe it was too hard

for you

to stop the ivy

from spreading

from choking off

the oak

~Tiffany Elise

don’t ask —                                                       i will end up saying  
                                          
                      yes to everything

~Rupa Anand

 

 

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Afternoon of June 19, 2024

 

I will hide

deep in this forest

tell stories

to giants

a thousand years old

~Sharon Ferrante

Busy Route

a glass-bottom bus

to see who’s thrown under it

Washington, D.C.

~John H. Dromey

the identity crisis we all have waning moon

~Arvinder Kaur

my forgiveness a beast with too many heads

~Joana Figueiredo

another depth to the sunset orange bombing stops

~Arvinder Kaur

Kicking up clouds of dust I made promises I can’t fulfill

~Joana Figueiredo

soliloquy who do I think I am?

~John Hawkhead

long breakup again and again this mailer demon

~Arvinder Kaur

through the window life goes on

~Jennifer Gurney

juxta I have no position

~Sharon Ferrante

hearing my life in the lyrics the blues

~Jennifer Gurney

I am living in half delirium

for the third day in a row

I am running laps around my sanity

~Joana Figueiredo

Kitten died at the end of the day

Alive can't be that dead

Throat can't be that quiet

I buried a kitten in a computer box

Next to the grave without a cemetery, I planted a tree

I still remember how I called our son a kitten

In my old age, I will remember how I planted a tree, raised a son and built a new

house for my son

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Previously published in The Gorko Gazette)

trying to fix

my head with things

from the junk drawer

~Amber Winter

Summer evening—

a cicada sings in my town

silencing all its noise

~Tejendra Sherchan

transit ward

the nurse

moves

from one patient to the next

wearing the same gloves

~Tuyet Van Do

in the end

his claws

never scratched

the loneliness

out of me

~Joana Figueiredo

under the heat dome

does any damn fool

still say don't sweat it

~dan smith

 

 

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Afternoon of June 15, 2024

 

deadheading roses

how can

this much summer

have already

been lived

~Jennifer Gurney

flopped

on the bathroom floor

my mortal enemy

taking the cockroach in a cloth

I set him outdoors

~Madeleine Kavanagh

CVS pharmacy

elevator music

line of legal drug seekers

~Steve Van Allen

local market

a lady walking about

dabs

of foundation cream

on her face

~Tuyet Van Do

The faces I meet

A train at 4 a.m.

The call of the vein.

Different boulders.

Misunderstanding?

I open the door

And find a human-a glistening sardonic.

If I am happy, I am in a deathtrap.

~Partha Sarkar

I love the stone for the fact that he is steadfastly silent

I don't like people because they die

little birds kiss the glass of the universe

the world is a torn book in the hands of a child

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Perceptions Magazine)

Calibrating Etymology

I used to close

with beat regards

but now beatitudes

seem more appropriate

~dan smith

No green in the clock

Once he protested alone against injustice and got defeated.

Then he thought he should protest collectively

And he joined the city of protest

And it is wise act

And it is positive.

congratulations!

But for a long time, I do not find any greenness in the clock.

~Partha Sarkar

bump stocks–

a major trigger

burning bright

~dan smith

lullabible

~Keith Evetts

shadow of a plane leaping trout

~Keith Evetts

no earthly reason why the moon

~Keith Evetts

it comes to me the cat

~Keith Evetts

the sky eats birds on the horizon

the bird shrinks to the size of a dot

the sun shines like a question mark

what will happen next?

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

 

(Originally published in Perceptions Magazine)

stepping off the train

with me

a vagabond pigeon

~Ranu Jain