Morning of January 2, 2025

inner octopus

just inked

me out

~Lys Browne

New Year's Day

I wake up facing

my TV

~John J. Dunphy

evening walk

letting go

of the prognosis

~Padma Rajeswari Tata

A hospital like nightqueen

Gets injured milky air by busy drilling.

No green janitor at the playground.

Pants Room No. 3 of the lungs.

Yet is fearless the lamb.

Yonder a hospital like nightqueen

With a nominal green ticket.

~Partha Sarkar

between yes and no she smiles creases

~Vijay Prasad

cloud peaks imposter syndrome

~Joshua St. Claire

strangling the willow tree devil's hair

~Tejendra Sherchan

magnetic monopoles

Wood’s cycad

in cone again

~Joshua St. Claire

winter night garden

where plants and dreams

hibernate

~Jennifer Gurney

prevailing winds

an editor and I exchange

form letters

~Joshua St. Claire

Thank You

A meaningless

 

after-mumble,

 

word chunks

crumble like

feta pieces

falling out

of your mouth.

~Keith Snow

winter night

all my dreams

frozen in place

~Jennifer Gurney

amazing

how a life can change

one email

~Jennifer Gurney

ANOTHER YEAR


Another year of hesitant steps

taken down winding paths to

hazy landscapes, shadowy vistas

colored in grays and darkened mists,

brushed by breezes of indecision,

forced broken strides forward

into an uncertain future.

~Ruth Van Alstine

December 31

suddenly my lap cat's purring

spans two years

~John J. Dunphy

half moon

the cat catching the mouse

I poisoned

~Joshua St. Claire

my cat

heavy on my feet

grounding me

~Jennifer Gurney

 

 

Afternoon of December 31, 2024

 

a script of my soul’s story half wakefulness

~Arvinder Kaur

a thousand words

a picture

says

a thousand words,

so does

your silence.

~linda m. crate

simplicity

complexity;

poetry

is wishy-

washy

~Noah Berlatsky

on the grill

hickory-smoked

robot bones

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

when you're drowning

high functioning

depression

means getting ignored

when you're drowning

because they say you

know how to swim.

~linda m. crate

the hit list

made us wonder who

had been a target,

and who hadn't been;

the school wouldn't say—

just expelled him

for it.

~linda m. crate

gone with the geese the initial of your name

~Arvinder Kaur

my worries break the surface ice crusted snow

~Morag Elizabeth Humble

funeral we speak in flowers

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

empty bin unfolding of my loud thoughts

~Arvinder Kaur

winter dusk a little girl’s brightest smile

~Tejendra Sherchan

beauty

the moon

is beautiful in

all of her phases,

so am i.

~linda m. crate

winter rains

the scent of wet dog

on my couch

~Morag Elizabeth Humble

hibernation —

his life has the merit

on earth

~Maria Cristina Pulvirenti

siren eyes

i mistook the sirens in

your eyes for

mermaids,

until they tried

drowning me.

~linda m. crate

night of celebration —

with a cheeky smile the elf

fades in air

~Maria Cristina Pulvirenti

 

Morning of December 30, 2024

 

getting squashed

with no second thought

cockroach's destiny

~Tejendra Sherchan

birthdays

some of us are over the hill

others under

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Today I need

The whole cup

Of coffee

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

longing for

my last

first kiss

~Jennifer Gurney

I know I told you

one life. Not eternity.

I was so young then.

~H. May

intertwining chapters

unexpected plot twist

in the end

~Jennifer Gurney

turn of events

our ship returns

to port

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Time

Is kryptonite

These days

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

waiting room mirror

unhealthy faces

stare back

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

Afternoon of December 29, 2024

 

thinking about what

I’m not thinking about

knowing I don’t know

~John Paul Caponigro

sea smoke

everything I needed to know

about 'being and nothingness'

~Patrick Sweeney

nothing’s nothing

~John Paul Caponigro

dreaming

not dreaming

not knowing

the difference

~John Paul Caponigro

Standing before

the art museum, I know

I should have checked the hours.

~Noah Berlatsky

forgetting

what I was worried about

I try not to worry

~John Paul Caponigro

basil pesto

looks like baby poop

I’m certain

pesto tastes better

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

when they began talking about speckle-patterns

and granular structures

I moved my chair closer to the fire

~Patrick Sweeney

mysterious time horizon of the last yellow leaf

~Patrick Sweeney

all day long he doesn't have an office window

~Patrick Sweeney

fire child of the sun

~Tejendra Sherchan

ramp closure on the way to a place I didn't want to go

~Patrick Sweeney

speed reading the book of my life

~John Paul Caponigro

the severe mathematics of a worrywart

~Patrick Sweeney

resilience…

a helix goes over my toe

and stops

~Maya Daneva

writing a birthday card

for myself…

psychologist’s waiting room

~Maya Daneva

snow thunder

half-hour spent on a semi-colon

I didn't need

~Patrick Sweeney

Unfolding

Continents shift

at the same speed

my fingernails grow;

Earth’s not swelling larger,

always turning outward, I

must be folding inward, too;

some things emerge others inter;

one crack’s loss is another’s gain;

the new becomes the old becomes the new.

~John Paul Caponigro

 

 (Hurry!)