Afternoon of August 16, 2024

Marriage Material

~Kelly Moyer

Photography available here

there's always a cat

looking back

at earth

~Melissa Dennison

midnight

blowing of the goat horn

dogs barking lingers on

~Tejendra Sherchan

clear skies

a cloud dog

chases a bone

~Melissa Dennison

children kept in storage

practice their smiles

~Martha Ellen

dissociative disorder

a fancy term for playing dead

~Martha Ellen

Too much caffeine

On the surface, but what’s

Past the surface

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

closer

to my second childhood

than  my    first

~Melissa Dennison

sultry night —

the salt rim melts

into a dirty martini

~Rupa Anand

weeper movie

the only dry eyes

in the theater

on an android

lacking tear ducts

~John J. Dunphy

escape speed a soul leaves the fontanelle

~John Hawkhead

snow on bamboo whispers from a different understanding

~John Hawkhead

climate crisis

we kick the melting can

down the road

~Melissa Dennison

Poet in Empty Bottle

~Michael Lee Johnson

Afternoon of August 12, 2024

Life Skills

~Kelly Moyer

Photography available here

 

"we came from there"

I tell

our neighbors' children

while gesturing toward

the night sky

~John J. Dunphy

a falling star —

our daughter shouts

'boom!'

~John J. Dunphy

looking up

Orion's belt

I am home

~Jennifer Gurney

school science fair

all the other exhibits

swallowed up by

our son's entry

a black hole

~John J. Dunphy

derelict starship

ran out of food first

set phasers on broil

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

clear night sky

the planets we pretend

not to see

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Not Miss Fluffy

 

“No, Dearest. Sometimes,”

O'Keeffe insisted to Stieglitz

peering over her shoulder

at the canvas, “a pink tulip

is no more than a pink tulip.

“Focus.”

~James Penha

 

the illusion

of happily ever

after

opening the

final decree

~Jennifer Gurney

in the old trunk

his ex was somewhat

the worse for wear

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

pushing

new educational concepts

through an olive press

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Martian flu

this stomach bug runs its course

then chews its way out

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

dispirited

the tumbledown saloon

gave up its ghost

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

evolution reenactment

my wife and I crawl

from ocean to beach

~John J. Dunphy

 

Afternoon of August 11, 2024

 

 

the comfort

of this island of one

sultry summer

~Mona Bedi

rocking the empty cradle a refugee’s blank eyes

~Mona Bedi

unfinished poem the night turns into a raven

~Mona Bedi

all the sad poets

scratching their way

toward the realization

that they've already arrived

home

in their notebooks

~Scott F. Parker

early morning at my desk

with enough coffee for now

returning myself

to myself

the only way i know how

~Scott F. Parker

final exam

if consciousness

is the cage

to which the only key

is consciousness

solve for

consciousness

solve

for yourself

~Scott F. Parker

ancestral home

granny’s hairpin

opens the door

~R. Suresh Babu

evolution can be seen as a ladder

unfortunately

some choose to climb down

flock of grey people

waiting room at the Hospital Heart Center

~Steve Van Allen

no shooting stars...

my wishes

go back immediately

~Nicoletta Ignatti

Dolls

inflatable hot air balloons

They long to fly very high

but bitten by mosquitoes

they sag

~Nicoletta Ignatti

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair”

'Fair is foul, and foul is fair

Hover through the fog and filthy air'

Come nearer the wanderings of the Weird Sisters.

The curtain-An eclipse in the air.

protests here. Protests yonder.

(guided or diverted?)

The eagle: It does not matter

whether the womb gropes to a perfect abode of peace.

~Partha Sarka

sleeping in . . .

one career stumble closer

to packing up

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

under

lap cat

laptop

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Five years, cat,

and I have never hurt you.

Could you sit on my lap now?

~Noah Berlatsky

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five Fleas swag:

https://www.zazzle.com/store/five_fleas