Afternoon of October 26, 2025

dressing up as an upcoming birthday to scare an existential crisis out of myself


~Martina Matijević




his ego built brick by brick


~Bipasha Majumder (De)



 

RETURN OF THE MEASLES?

ten fleas leap from the bed


~Pris Campbell




my body's atoms billions of years old


~Tejendra Sherchan




afternoon chat

in front of the fireplace –

poison tea


~Nicoletta Ignatti




a grave miss stake

confusing left and right


~dan smith




I imagine

turning the Bailong Elevator

into a cosmic one


~Tejendra Sherhan




what fun

to lose myself

in disarray


~Sarah Mahina Calvello




softest breeze

i wish you had been

my first husband

~Tiffany Rindler




his focus was entirely on the 'why' nobody bothered

to shoo the fly from the gorgonzola

~Patrick Sweeney




expect real-time shortages of tear gas and concertina wire

~Patrick Sweeney




the boy with freckles wants to know why

we ruined the world

~Patrick Sweeney




whispering the names of pallbearers in the green kitchen

~Patrick Sweeney




writing in my notebook is making everyone nervous

~Patrick Sweeney




Post Mortem: the last person he googled was himself


~Patrick Sweeney




clink of cans

nestling into place

pantry-geist

~Nicholas De Marino



 

a small boy

searches the field for it

the Great Pumpkin

~Joseph P. Wechselberger




four street lamps –

my shadows

all the same

~Antonio Mangiameli



 

A nation is made of borders!”

No.

Of neighbors.

~Noah Berlatsky




daring thoughts

how we’re naked

beneath our clothes

~Peter Jastermsky

Morning of October 22, 2025

 













  dad’s Rube Goldberg



t                  i                  g                

          h                 n

                  

                   a       

         

m                j                  g

           a                 i


~Barrie Levine




upon reflection

lack of mirrors

a major clue


~dan smith




back in the US, back in the US

security sweeps the benches

with mirrors


~Bruce H. Feingold




his favorite philosopher Hobbes

~dan smith




caged in bone a heart under cardiac arrest


~John Hawkhead




a thread of hatred in the anagram


~John Hawkhead




downfall how quickly it happens


~Roberta Beach Jacobson




Team


Not I

or you

but

some

body

trying

to turn

us all

into

meat.


~Chad Parenteau




leaving out

a few years

my CV


~Roberta Beach Jacobson




departed melody

of the empty casket

whispers the night


~Elliot Diamond




black widow

knitting ghost yarn


~Elliot Diamond




the universe

eternally in motion

my restlessness


~Tejendra Sherchan

 

 

Afternoon of October 20, 2025

 


Mudslide Rainbows

~dan smith




postmortem . . .
 
she never cared enough

to haunt me now

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer




morning coffee ~

my bluebird

back from yonder

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer




end of TIME

issues

keep coming


~Nicholas De Marino




rubbery

leathery

Halloween masky

~Nicholas De Marino




The mask


The mask never tells a lie.

~Partha Sarkar




The house burned down.

Now I am free to feel the wind.

It is cold.

~Noah Berlatsky




pumpkin piñata

crushing the skull

of an orange devil

~Stephanie Zepherelli




string quartet

the swirling crescendo

of weed wackers

~Stephanie Zepherelli




purple phase

the taste of lavender

ice cream

~Stephanie Zepherelli




staring 

down 

snow 

globe 

she 

stops 

time

~Stephanie Zepherelli




caterpillars

tight roping –

missile fragments

~Elliot Diamond




A Weighted Body


I didn't always do the best I could.

Sometimes I did the worst.

I just didn't know it then.

Didn't make many mistakes just a few

major ones. The epigenetic

cell destroying kind that ripple

outward like a weighted body

dumped in a well. A soul eating

malignancy so unforgiving.

This is what passes for apology.

~dan smith




pogostuck-

social media electorate

super silly us

~dan smith




shapeshifting at night

to shine in the sky

asters

~Pegah Rahmati Nezhad




he cried when the monsters sang 'Happy Birthday'

~Patrick Sweeney




mom would've told them

to stick out their lying tongues

~Patrick Sweeney




wait here, he's telling the cigarette ash in the potato salad story

~Patrick Sweeney




he's going on about Archimedes again

to six kids on twelve elbows


~Patrick Sweeney




he knew he moved his lips when reading

and he knew what Hemingway said about it


~Patrick Sweeney




I dream of a poem so small

only fairies can find the beginning


~Karen A VandenBos




cicada

exoskeleton

out of body experience


~Karen A VandenBos




the moonlight gave him paws


~dan smith




zombie wedding everyone has cold feet


~
dan smith

 

  



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