Afternoon of November 23, 2025

 


Messages

~dan smith




gliding through skyscrapers

I too fall in love

with my AI avatar

~Jackie Chou




escaping

into the breaths

of shakuhachi

our lives before

the immigrant blues

~Jackie Chou




pageant breakfast

stalks of green grapes

on our tiny plates

~Jackie Chou




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cat walk haiku

~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky




Windy day

Leaves on the oak

Try to hang on

So do I

    So do I

~Tom Blessing




wrapped in a flag

old white man believing

he is america

~Tom Blessing




she had her way with my words

~dan smith




zen garden letting weeds be weeds

~Bryan Rickert




my usual walk but backwards the earth’s spin

~Bryan Rickert




I look at my screen

and remember

yesterday's screen

~Noah Berlatsky




fire drums

across the plains

tent cities

~Sherry Reniker




wisecracks–

a blind masseuse

walks my buttocks

~Sherry Reniker




sidewalk

near the feet

of the body's chalk outline

passerby places

a banana peel

~John J. Dunphy




racing against

the clock

still trying

to figure out life

before hitting 72

~John J. Dunphy




dioxide skies

the relentless rage

of refineries

~Stephanie Zepherelli




self-help book not feeling the hieroglyphics

~Stephanie Zepherelli




the soup

needing more water

homeless camp

~Stephanie Zepherelli




bleached bones

the only remains

of shipwrecked dreams

~Stephanie Zepherelli

 

 

Our 2025 Touchstone Award Nominations

Congratulations are in order for these Five Fleas nominees:


wishbones

fearing the snap

of disappointment


Joanna Ashwell



press conference-

the stomping

leads to whine


dan smith



living for years on Aretha's 'huh'


Patrick Sweeney



after the rapture a world without dogs


Julie Bloss Kelsey



distant sun

deadheading paper roses

in art therapy


Steve Black



she grabbed her walker

& rolled right out the front door

destined for the sea

Stephen Ground



she ran her fingers

through his bird's nest of a beard

& pulled out an egg


Stephen Ground



moon landing what if I have to pee

Martina Matijević



wardrobe update . . .

i crochet myself

a wise woman’s shawl


Kelly Sauvage Moyer



Curly's response

to tyranny

'nyuk, nyuk, nyuk'


Patrick Sweeney



the bad

comes with the good

joined at the head


Jerome Berglund



border crossing

an elephant stamps

my passport

Colleen M. Farrelly



tinkling triangles

the Pythagorean orchestra

a roomful of squares


Robert Witmer



thought a staircase ending mid air

Vijay Prasad



full of himselfie

Robert Witmer

Afternoon of November 17, 2025

 


Official Account

 

My brain

is the best brain

and filled with things.

 

~Noah Berlatsky

 

 

 

textile tariffs

the emperor’s

new clothes

~Mike Fainzilber



 

suffer little children

the smell

of rotting rice

~Mike Fainzilber




outwitting three lions a porcupine

~Tejendra Sherchan


 

 

new neighbor woodpecking the silence

~Hynek Koziol




some bullet shards

in his body

never taken out

~Hynek Koziol




old circus -

no rabbits left

in the hat


~Hynek Koziol




hearing

the latest news...

anticyclonic gloom

~Melissa Dennison




if I

     go that way --

             hoping for a

                pot of gold

~Melissa Dennison




frass...

the signature

of a moth

~Melissa Dennison

 

 


a black and white movie

from the year he was born ...

hospice


~Joseph P. Wechselberger




happy hour

a man across the bar

winks and smiles

~Joseph P. Wechselberger


 

 

listening to Frozen

letting my niece

paint my nails

~Stephen C. Curro



 

dewdrop

all the cosmos

on one leaf

~Stephen C. Curro