Evening of October 10, 2025

 

Cathedral of the In-Between

~dan smith

Oak trees know all about asphyxia but nothing about death

Flowers know all about withering but nothing about resurrection

The sun knows all about warmth but nothing about love

The moon knows all about night but nothing about passion

And I leave again knowing nothing as alone as at birth

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

During the plague

Еveryone writes poetry

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

No MFA

 

I have never taught a poetry class.

I tried to be a poetry teacher but I failed.

I am still failing.

There is nothing to learn here.

~Noah Berlatsky

cypress tree knees

a riderless kayak

knocks

~Randy Brooks

doing things together

fitted sheets

don’t

~Randy Brooks

an inheritance of flowers

the neighbor’s wife

revives him

~Randy Brooks

human bean

the bent reflection of ICE

on Michigan Avenue

~Randy Brooks

 

training grounds

make my heart sink

as they become killing fields

~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky

farm field

ICE agents joke about

harvesting illegals

~John J. Dunphy

Captain Vibrato

You sailed on ships of light

out beyond our wisps of stars.

Sent us postcards

filled with trembling trees

and all your mad fragility

that pled: wish you were here.

They were postmarked Immortality.

~dan smith

You

fall out

and crawl over

and climb up

into you.

~Noah Berlatsky

deli fresh    pâté de foie humain

~Richard Magahiz

 

it is all rotten

but some of it

wears perfume

~Richard Magahiz

as flesh and metal try to occupy a single point

~Richard Magahiz

nobody wants a lecture on

the distance between oxygen molecules

at high altitude

~Patrick Sweeney

the Yang side of the man

who doesn't want to talk about it

~Patrick Sweeney

the singer talked about the missing verse

in the song he was about to sing

~Patrick Sweeney

he used to say 'it will all go on the next day without me' and it did

~Patrick Sweeney

militarization...

tell me again,

how does a maple leaf ignite

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

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

Afternoon of October 7, 2025

 

naps are good but then

you wake up and you’re just

back where you started

~Noah Berlatsky

drone

not knowing where to land

sunflowers

~Gareth Nurden

last goodbye

the cold cutting

of the moon

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Gradual End of Days

Fimbulwinter

on right.

Ragnarök

to left.

Both seek

the center.

~Chad Parenteau

caught

within my kundabuffer

bluebirds

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

guru worship

i wash down my meds

with a mantra

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

the tattered thread count of inner-linens

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

slow corruption the body of state

~John Hawkhead

 

downtrodden an unexploded word

~John Hawkhead

At night, trees ask each other

How to escape to freedom.

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

straying from the herd

my legs leap from the bed

as I fall asleep

~M. R. Pelletier

life lessons

I get better & better

at being no good

~M. R. Pelletier

election month

prisoners released

in large numbers

~Bipasha Majumder (De)

potatoes

sold at a high rate

politicians

~Bipasha Majumder (De)

illumination

what I don’t get

from watching T.V.

~Douglas J. Lanzo

budget debates

what used to precede

shutdowns

~Douglas J. Lanzo

 

politicians

explaining away votes

babbling brooks

~Douglas J. Lanzo

peace agreements –

the devil's plan

in the details

~Nicoletta Ignatti

virtual keyboard . . .

collecting my fingerprints

on the screen


~Oscar Luparia

feline paw the new vase ready for kintsugi


~Oscar Luparia

 

Morning of October 2, 2025

 

demons don't dwell deep

but buzz busy bouquets 

traded through together times

playing phony, plainly plight

lovingly loatheing  lonesome lands

swell sweetly searching sense

in inlays indeed intended

~Allen David Simon

shameless shamans sell spirits

offering obscene opportunities

neverworld neigh need

altogether abandoning altruism anyone added
 

~Allen David Simon

times took time till tranquility trickled through

~Allen David Simon

truest trust traced to tomorrowland triumphantly turned tail

~Allen David Simon

divorce

rearranging the furniture

one more time

~Anne Fox

barren landscape

no place to rest my head

in my mind

~Anne Fox

hyperventilating into a brown bag lunch

~Anne Fox

cacao ceremony —

spilling all the beans

~Olinda Ninolakis

If I won the lottery

I’d just sit here writing poetry,

and, hey, that’s what I’m doing

right now.

~Noah Berlatsky

inhale…

the sky cleans me

of me

~Maya Daneva

clinic’s garden

where rain and tears

mix

~Maya Daneva

bones that crack

silhouettes of velvet night

hiding under blankets

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

bongo-playing in the woods

I jam with

a woodpecker

~John J. Dunphy

my poetry reading

a listener

claps his hands

to squash

a mosquito

~John J. Dunphy

every morning

a cockroach drowns

in my water glass

~Tejendra Sherchan

the thin sinking socks of illiteracy

~Patrick Sweeney

nothing like watching a sea nettle practice the Tao

~Patrick Sweeney

spray-painted on the wall of Checks Cashed Here

a rainbow and a unicorn

~Patrick Sweeney

the medieval dread

of unknown

callers

~Patrick Sweeney

Duchamp resurrected and peed in the fountain.

~Martina Matijević

3:00AM

all the blinking lights

that never sleep

~Joshua St. Claire

a tight pony-tail screaming

at a seven year-old boy

aluminum bleachers

~Joshua St. Claire

ChatGPT programmed

not to admit it

dukkha

~Joshua St. Claire

 

rheumatism

in dog years

I am a tortoise


~Joshua St. Claire

On Prednisone



The only thing you need to know is that this is the third haibun I’ve written today.


flare star last gasp

~Joshua St. Claire