Afternoon of May 16, 2024

 

The Overlord

~Kelly Moyer
 
Photography available here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

spring storm

the dialogue interrupted

by a short circuit

~Nicoletta Ignatti




flea


it danced it here now there again

and sprang its music deep upon me

i speak i speak i speak i speak

sucking out a sip of me for it to live

a fat disgust a hot sink drowning

a crushing between fingernails

i this god dispense

in answer to its helpless daring

while i this flea am honoured here

in answer to my need

and worse and worse expect it

~Harry Owen




Springtime spiders, cute and small,

skitter up the hallway wall,

kitchen counter, kitchen chair,

weft their webs within your hair.

~Terry Trowbridge




red traffic light

sitting behind the motorist

a zip-tied barbie

~Tuyet Van Do




dry gin the empty quarter in my mind map

~John Hawkhead

 

 


in the desert (when I stop thinking of it) an oasis

~Arvinder Kaur

 

 


carbon credit to absolutely no one

~John Hawkhead




clothes shopping —

the men in dire need

of a woman

~Maurizio Brancaleoni




I see a silent film star

working in a shop

She tends the till, wraps the gifts.


She looks up slightly to the left

never straight at me.

Her skin is celluloid

The day is black and white

~Sarah Davies




GPS tells me

I am on the fastest route

to perdition

~James Penha




deserted island


i'm not

a man so maybe

i'm an island,

hopefully a deserted one;

i don't want people

walking all over me.

~linda m. crate




no wonder the lily

blooms just for a day

this world of men

~Arvinder Kaur



BE WARNED


if you’re

sitting by yourself

in a coffee shop

and reading

something by

Thomas Pynchon

I cannot be

responsible

for my

undivided

attention

~John Grey

 



Closure

~Michael Lee Johnson

Morning of May 12, 2024

Psychic Grief


diehard pessimist

her spirit animal

is a dead duck

~John H. Dromey





the latest fashion

a search for identity

in a differential equation

~Robert Witmer




a dragon bone?

the little girl returns

a curtsy

~Randy Brooks




Yellow press or gutter newspapers

Custard, mustard, lemon meringue pie

Book pages yellowed by the heat

Yellow spots on the mirror's surface

Yellow sun full of midday beach time glamour

Yellow moon risen to brighten nighttime pallor

Yellow skin sickened by jaundice

Yellow fingers stained by tobacco

Yellow Hockney crocs my word

Yellow is wonderful and absurd

~Olinda Ninolakis




Alas! war is not responsible


Fleeing poor in the election.

A weak and sick crawling kitten in democracy.

It rains after the prolonged heatwave.

Yet a mixed fleeing- Will an innocent get a perfect green cottage?


An eternal conscience!


I suffer because of the lack of green.


Alas! war is not responsible for that.

~Partha Sarkar




Doubt Sourcing


A.I.dentity crisis

~John H. Dromey




the contrasts

the symmetry

but Shane

never comes back

~dan smith




walk-in clinic

already seated in the waiting room

my one-night stand

~John J. Dunphy




Poison Pen Letter


venomous words

in tightly-wound cursive coils

waiting to strike

~John H. Dromey




                     stillpoint

                a brief refuge . . .

            in the hurricane eye

~Stephanie Zepherelli




a child

the cat

catastrophic

collapse

her community

~Wanda Amos




afternoon sun

a monkey family

grooming each other

so delicious

the fat fleas

~Wanda Amos




the wheel without the sun one could be

~J. D. Nelson




dandelion parking the drive-in theatre

~Randy Brooks




parakeet angle you redundant you

~J. D. Nelson




gurgling brook who’s a good baby stream

~Susan Burch




grain chain the world after next

~J. D. Nelson




campaign logic as strong as an oxymoron

~Robert Witmer




that name suddenly one hundred prowling frogs

~J. D. Nelson




flapdoodle morning

making my way

to malarkey

~Susan Burch

Afternoon of May 8, 2024

 

constellation, an endless source of food

my pocket as empty as my stomach.

~Fhen M.




in spite of it all

student debt

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




Listen


If you carve a poem on a tree in a forest and

the tree falls on you and

you and the tree decay together over a hundred years.

Mushrooms grow out of your eyes.

Mushrooms grow out of your eyes.

Mushrooms grow out of your ears.

What was I saying?

~Noah Berlatsky




circling

their cubicles

customer service reps

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




the crispness

of his meat skewers…

al Dante

~David Cox




I am Orion & with my dog

hunt meat & fish in the sea of stars

~Fhen M.




Loving you 41


In

a

coal

mine

the

canary's

last

breath.

~Matt Borczon




Loving you 26


the

truth

only

dogs

know

~Matt Borczon




Loving you 22


wishing

it

was

easier.

~Matt Borczon




Loving you 11


screaming

into

an

empty

church.

~Matt Borczon