Morning of October 27, 2024

  

thanks for making

a positive choice

with your shoes

~Mark Valentine

this week

head outside

and experience

~Mark Valentine

your holiday is

nearly here

we're delighted

~Mark Valentine

As to summit and tooth

Begins summit.

Toothache.

Summit on.

Toothpaste.

MoU.

Toothsome.

Summit is over.

Toothpick.

Next summit.

Toothbrush.

~Partha Sarkar

musical scales

a heavy minor chord

difficult times

~Olinda Ninolakis

a touch of love

uncountable syllables

no cutting words

~Olinda Ninolakis

A delivery kid in the rain

A delivery kid

in the rain

with meagre commission

on no man's land-

the mother's womb.

~Partha Sarkar

today I see

no good

& no evil

neither good

nor evil

~Mark Gilbert

predictably

the orangutan

watches us

act predictably

while grazing

~Mark Gilbert

two quadrums

single bed.         single clap.

that buzzing        the ending

in my ear.                 of a life.

~Mark Gilbert

another autumn . . .

father's garden sea still

creaking

~Fatma Zohra Habis

weaving the canvas

unraveling the canvas —

politician's work

~Nicoletta Ignatti

election day

in the 10-day forecast

a 50% chance

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

political debate

the moderator’s sneeze

caught in mid-air

~Mona Bedi

Kamala

in Kalamazoo

today

~Jennifer Gurney

getting my brave on

I step into

the fray

~Jennifer Gurney

I wonder

what happens to all the poems

written only in my mind

~Jennifer Gurney

another little time machine great-grandchild

~dan smith

hanging roots my unreasonable expectations

~Mona Bedi

believing unbelieving what was I thinking

~Mark Gilbert

just after the storm a praying mantis

~Mona Bedi

paper boats—

the untold stories

after the flood

~Mona Bedi

a faded line

on the pregnancy kit

false spring

~Mona Bedi

 

 

Afternoon of October 24, 2024

 

hurricane smashing

the reporter

protects her microphone

with

a condom

~Tuyet Van Do

Fortune cookie

Is now a misfortune cookie

Tables have turned

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Hope

A four-lettered word

Dim sum for one

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

ant Darwin’s

crystal ball

how to get through

the footfalls

to fall

~Biswajit Mishra

moonless night

looking for the right moon

for a poem

~Biswajit Mishra

reduced milk

once part of a multipack…

I hold you so close

~David Cox

December darkness —

between us

a photon

~Vijay Prasad

my family folk art knitted brows

~dan smith

time flies — but where does it land?

~Tom Blessing

not one duck in the pond writer’s block

~Sharon Ferrante

Halloween season beware of seedy orange characters

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

All Souls' Day

our shoes caked with

graveyard mud

~John J. Dunphy

 

such

a spooky season

election time

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

I told you one day

I’d swim in your ocean

—Jupiter

~Sharon Ferrante

rest stop law

visitors will be greeted

by a fly

~Sharon Ferrante

mid-movie

an urge to peel my feet

from the sticky floor

~Sharon Ferrante

I want that

to be my killer

of today’s fear

a fly on the nose

of a lion

~Sharon Ferrante

cold dew

watering the succulents

out of habit

~Madeleine Kavanagh

SHADOW PLAY

 

The rusty nail

bends back

upon itself

to see

its shadow

wearing

a sun hat.

~Diane Webster

INTO THE SUNSET

 

At least

the railroad tracks

have a partner

to go off

into the sunset with.

~Diane Webster

not a piggy-bank

full of stones

my gall

~Hassane Zemmouri

Heron — a perfect philosopher

A lone white heron

returning home

in the evening-

A lone philosopher

even without a follower.

~Partha Sarkar

spiky bones

in my fish curry

yet they can't protect him

~Tejendra Sherchan

time travel

if only

i’d go back

a day

and keep

my mouth

shut

~Tom Blessing

if only

I could lose loss

and find found

~Jennifer Gurney

 

Afternoon of October 22, 2024

 

 

Hey, Kids!

~Kelly Moyer

photos available here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

they're screwed

she thinks

escaping the shoe

~Melissa Dennison

creeping up

through the floorboards

they're coming for you

~Melissa Dennison

The Romance of Rain


Each drop

is colorless

of grief

or bliss,

a thought

in pale

oblate

obliviousness.

~Noah Berlatsky

what if I ask

the purple morning glory

to bloom over me too

~Tejendra Sherchan

Why

“Y” in rye

& whiskey,

rhythm, rhyme

thyme, malady

melody, mary lies,

lye, tie-dye, my, oh my

by & by, bye-bye, fly, away!

~Keith Snow

Daze (Days)

In the projects,

you need a calendar,

not a clock, to monitor

the arrival of your building's

maintenance man.

~Keith Snow

B

a crappy crap

navigates

the sandy peach

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

tv

dare to unplug when off

is not enough

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

trapped in

an eternal embrace

the moon longs for deep space

~Melissa Dennison

quietly

inch by inch

death steals her away

~Melissa Dennison

along the road

a stray puppy's efforts

to secure an owner

~Tejendra Sherchan

Deciding

What road to take

Shotgun

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

train like hell

the US men's

reverse diving team

~Richard Magahiz

alphabet soup gotcha journalism

~Jerome Berglund

fumbling at my front door beetle on a chain

~Richard Magahiz

from their seafloor abbey    salt sutras 

~Richard Magahiz

what am I supposed to do turnips

~Robert Epstein

in so many words plantain

~Robert Epstein

castle walls common sense

~Jerome Berglund

reform the bargaining stage of grief

~Jerome Berglund

~Jerome Berglund & Christina Chin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flea swag available here