Afternoon of August 27, 2024

when the Milky Way Galaxy was above and below the chained dipper

~Patrick Sweeney

the high anatomy of chewing vegetable roots and gazing at stars

~Patrick Sweeney

out

of

time

&

hyper

space

earth

no

longer

earth

~Randy Brooks

Hang On!

Moon age

day dreamer.

~Keith Snow

Earth again at last

herds of bison keep

radio silence

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

a snake vanishes—

gravity pulls it down

into the black hole

~Suraj Nanu

the cake exploded

the guest of honor briefly

surprised by the claws

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

zydeco deathmatch

another busker thrown

to the gators

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

"how could they be so dumb?"

child asks his parents

after watching historical reenactors

depict racism

~John J. Dunphy

monsoon at the end...

ants trailing thins out

in my bathroom

~Tejendra Sherchan

pest control

she brooms the salesman

off the porch

~Randy Brooks

I heard that there was a paradise.

But we wouldn't have it anymore.

Some idiot would have lost it.

~Marie Derley

a man’s shadow...

shrinks and vanishes

as he leaves the light

~Tejendra Sherchan

The blunt skeletons in sharp competition

The cloudy morning.

The three-wheelers are rushing breathlessly

To catch more passengers.

I watch and watch day by day

The blunt skeletons in sharp competition

And correct a geography lesson-

Every day the sun rises in the west.

~Partha Sarkar

buttonholing perfect strangers with observational irrelevancies

~Patrick Sweeney

we had tsetse flies and H-bombs when I was your age

~Patrick Sweeney

in her quiet way, she answered all my Chinese destinies

~Patrick Sweeney

already dropped

so many shoes

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

active crime scene crumbs of the cupcake lady

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Haiku Dilemma

I must rearrange

the poetry books. Alas,

I’m not ready yet.

~Noah Berlatsky

Mahout

just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike

the yellow straw

~Patrick Sweeney

father said to son while counting the change in his pocket:

please don't breathe

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

(Originally published in Pate Journal)

although asphyxiation was improbable,

a full congregation

simultaneously exhaling

~Patrick Sweeney

 

Afternoon of August 24, 2024

Ozone

~Kelly Moyer

Photography available here

I Am Old

Yet though the miracle

of imposter syndrome

eternally young.

~Noah Berlatsky

Ignorance Together

I am glad to have been married

twenty-four years

to someone

who can’t remember

our anniversary either.

~Noah Berlatsky

leftover bay leaf

on my meal plate...

I eat only its scent

~Tejendra Sherchan

Irene

to the untrained eye

she may appear average

but Irene

hides a box of 8-tracks

in the attic

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

housed in thrift store basement secondhand allegations

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Critique of Pure Raisin

bran

baby

bran

~dan smith

condemned house

its lead-based paint warning

written in pencil

~John J. Dunphy

shuttered nuclear power plant

its grounds aglow

with fireflies

~John J. Dunphy

gaps in

papyrus

rolls

endless space

for genius

~Bob Carlton

clearing sky

the crunch of snails

underfoot

~Bob Carlton

Morning of August 21, 2024

OG

~Kelly Moyer

Photography available here

the idol's lips move

the mob pummeled

with pink noise

~Richard Magahiz

fifty fathoms down

signatures in

triplicate

~Richard Magahiz

creeping dust children

their eyelashes

needle-sharp

~Richard Magahiz

To tea

Or not to tea

That is the question

~Susan L. Pope

loggerhead

so many versions

of king lear

~Jerome Berglund

analysis: the architect has an edifice complex

~dan smith

while waiting

for the brake job my headache

gets run over

~Robert Epstein

Sunday laundry

round & round

the argument goes

~Robert Epstein

summer dying I become shale

~Joshua St. Claire

now I have it

now I don't

my death poem

~Robert Epstein

Jane ear

Jane hare

Jane heir

~Jerome Berglund

as I make coffee

you swirl amongst my thoughts

the scent of hazelnut

~Jennifer Gurney

we

are

not

going

back

~Jennifer Gurney

After the heinous crime

'Dead population is shouting for justice...'

'Let them do so.'

'They are demanding investigation'

'Let them do so. One day all crime will be hushed up.

One day the dead population will be much more dead.

Then I will allow them to slogan "Long Live revolution '

~Partha Sarkar

rain arrow hang the jury

~Jerome Berglund

The riot

Trapped my soul

In riot.

Is my neighbour

Enemy?

~Partha Sarkar

Labor Day parade

unionized strippers march

in their work clothes

~John J. Dunphy

root vegetable

if a pill could alleviate

poverty

~Jerome Berglund

to your third eye

touch the Pole Star

act quite human

~Richard Magahiz

western civilization

a mass-produced 1000-piece puzzle

of Starry Night

~Joshua St. Claire

black eye

of the two-stripe grasshopper

telescope to a moon

~Elliot Diamond

 

grunge cosmos —

stardust

on my lips

~Aly Droyd