Afternoon of March 1, 2025

	The Samurai ~Jean-Paul Moyer Joshua St. Claire found himself transformed into a horrible vermin three-hour budget meeting ~Joshua St. Claire Don't think of it as getting older. Think of it as taking more pills. ~Noah Berlatsky pyramid scheme we lose another home ~Jerome Berglund with its masquerade a cockroach escapes my squashing ~Tejendra Sherchan The world is too small to bid goodbye I have given everything that I had. You have given me everything that you had. Now you have to go As a bright journey awaits you. But I will not bid you goodbye. The world is too small to bid you goodbye for good. ~Partha Sarkar almost as tall as me                                           Tomorrow’s moon ~Joshua St. Claire solitaire suit yourself ~Jerome Berglund shooting star robots do not cry ~Maya Daneva moonlight what dad never confessed ~Maya Daneva unnecessary things scattered on the floor. including my life. ~Mykyta Ryzhykh death never ends ~Mykyta Ryzhykh   mold spores laughter from behind the drywall ~Roberta Beach Jacobson sky becoming blueberries this sunset ~Maya Daneva paint-by-numbers lotus                                                  no dissembly required ~Joshua St. Claire what happened when what happened happened ~Joshua St. Claire feeling some kinda way poppies ~Joshua St. Claire katydid find my iPhone ~Joshua St. Claire my incompetence the north wind presses on stones  ~Joshua St. Claire in my thoughts just enough moonlight ~Maya Daneva in the next game they change the colors of their uniforms ~Jerome Berglund pink penguins prance Rastafari play reggae kittens' road trip ~Olinda Ninolakis temple on the side of a street its missing God ~Tejendra Sherchan picking through the end of a pomegranate stellar remnants ~Joshua St. Claire     aquarium . . .  undersea nurses in scuba-scrubs ~Roberta Beach Jacobson she feels less lonely looking out the window into the graveyard ~Denisa Hanšutová coyote the size of an alsatian in this night somewhere close ~Jerome Berglund abortion pill gulping the blood moon a werewolf ~Debarati Sen On Our Radar Tsuri-doro:   Open for submissions March 1-10   https://tsuridoro.org/contact   &   Joyfully Wondrous:   Open for (poetry, photos, short fiction, art) subs March 1-7   magiquepublishing245@gmail.com       & Fireflies' Light: Open for poetry and essays about poetry subs March 1-31 https://www.mobap.edu/about-mbu/publications/fireflies-light/

Morning of February 27, 2025

 

                                                 
Private Eyes

~Kelly Sauvage Moyer

hoeing around

a young zucchini

Bob Marley sings

don’t cut

my connection

~Randy Brooks

I have

emptied the

dishwasher.

 

I am

announcing

this now

 

because I want

credit.

~Noah Berltasky

detritivores, unite!

inauguration day

billionaires feed

on what remains

~J.J. Penniman/Kelly Sauvage Moyer

sleep tight streetlight

ghostly voices

a crow plucks nits

from my nihilism

~Heidi McIver/Kelly Sauvage Moyer

filleted potato

poetry cafe

the hatchetman

leads a beat to slaughter

~Robert P. Moyer/Kelly Sauvage Moyer

the dew has risen

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

the fragment airy world

~Bob Carlton

We pecked grain at sunset. The farmers sharpened their knives.

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

pigeons eat pigeons

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

after the derecho our splinter group grows stronger

~dan smith

the dead man's mail more interesting than mine

~dan smith

gravity is not subject to my freedom

~Mykyta Ryzhykh

Abandoning Demons

 

Having relinquished all control,

I immediately encounter

a sense of ambient anxiety.

All my surroundings are new to me.

I see depth in color and feel touch temperature.

Familiar voices exhibit a new clarity.

Now darkness holds no terror

and the stars beckon me

to places in never imagined.

~R. Gerry Fabian

from zenith

the Deneb gazing down

at winter jasmines

~Tejendra Sherchan

winter camellia

alone in the garden

section

~Madeleine Kavanagh

Birth-only friend

Birth-

My only friend

Who gives me an obscure destination

And goes forever.

~Partha Sarkar

Hanging

On the edge of a moment

Tears never cried

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Sun-Soaked

Half-baked tendencies

Roasting under

Heavenly Hell,

Rendering ashes.

~Chris Litsey

Colleague

Face made

for HR,

scent fit for

bathroom

passing

judgement.

~Chad Parenteau

the uni

verse is

for ever

expanding

memory

~Bob Carlton

What Luck!



a pen

at hand

just now

when…

~Bob Carlton

Each conversation

Each conversation is as sweet as buzzing

If there is no hidden knife in it.

~Partha Sarkar

scythe tree

hiding in the spring night

to slay ghosts

~Tejendra Sherchan

Winter Adage

You gotta

move in

the cold

or

the cold

is gonna

move in

to you.

~Bob Carlton

smiling down on me

in my roadster

a drive-thru thumbs up

~Randy Brooks

squirrels are rodents

please respect

their cuteness

don’t

call

them

tree

rats

~John H. Dromey (text) / Wilbur F. Gleckler (image)

 

 

Unsure when this deadline

is,

so best to submit in

February!

Afternoon of February 25, 2025

 

My Bad Fortune

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

search engine

I find myself

scattered

around the earth

~Kimberly Kuchar

dark web radicalizing the square

~John Pappas

skim ice

the fragility of

consolation

~John Pappas

it was a man

who explained to me

about mansplaining

~Penny Lowery

there may be a planet

where pebbles are as valuable

as a diamond

~Tejendra Sherchan

first snow

silence surrounds

an *

~John Pappas

Onomastic mysteries

What was the Aegean Sea called

before Aegeus drowned in it?

Or the Atlantic Ocean, before Atlas?

~Marie Derley

mug shots

only the politicians

change


~Douglas J. Lanzo

Heil to the Chief—

putting the cult

in culture

~dan smith

reprimand…

the boy advises the emperor

on his nakedness

~David Cox

You dream!



You dream!

Let us take a turn.


~Partha Sarkar

barefoot in wild mint the strangeness of belief

~John Pappas

changing our perspective AI-generated eyes

~Douglas J. Lanzo

the fluidity of drunkenness in chiffon

~Patrick Sweeney

boiling milk the deported migrants

~Tejendra Sherchan

Tea drinkers

sharing wallpaper

phantasmagoria

~Patrick Sweeney

streetlight on snow wondering if I’ll ever

~John Pappas

Cloud viewing

never ever

and always

~Patrick Sweeney

Checking his FICO score

on a dying

planet

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

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