Afternoon of June 21, 2025

 

 

she suspects I might be genetically predisposed

to abduction

by UFOs

~Patrick Sweeney




he made everyone feel they were poor listeners

~Patrick Sweeney




the demeanor of a man who flunked second grade

~Patrick Sweeney




our tired and poor still tired and poor

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




after 'hi' it was always who's paying for this long-distance phone call

~Patrick Sweeney




news fog - headlines reach dew point

~Dara Royal




he's not the kind of guy to change his assigned seat

~Patrick Sweeney




avoiding my own playlist

~Patrick Sweeney




engaging me

in conversation

her stinky breath

~Tejendra Sherchan




six foot four man

six inch baby bunny

sharing secrets

~Belinda Behne




the conversation turned zodiacal

I put Cassius

on mute

~Patrick Sweeney




reunion

uneasily walking on

the University's grasses

~Patrick Sweeney




all

the daisies I ruined

for love

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




everyone should have an older brother

who says watch out for the werewolf

on the dark stairs

~Patrick Sweeney

 


Afternoon of June 20, 2025


monsoon dusk

beetles rise from earth

one by one

~Neena Singh



 

storm-wet wood

an earwig curls

into silence

~Neena Singh




her thing-like character in excess materiality

~Vijay Prasad



 

generation after generation poverty

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




Snail moves towards eternity


Moves towards meagre demand

Without rush

But with a vast life snail...


That's why, it is alive and meets eternity.

~Partha Sarkar




waning moon

little by little

I disappear

~Jackie Chou



 

overthinking

the annoyed caw

of a crow

~Jackie Chou




off-stage

actor’s knife sharpened

he waits

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




afternoon nap

jumping awake thinking

it’s tomorrow

~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky




sips –

coffee rings

until yesterday

~Elliot Diamond

 

 

A call for haiku about American Independence Day

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15852436

 


Morning of June 19, 2025

 

 

 

sugar maple

kept awake with

jelly beans


~Jerome Berglund




held

too tightly

sugar glass


    summer fling


~Jerome Berglund &

    Shane Coppage




script doctor 

feeling pleasure 

removing pain


    the serviceberry


~Jerome Berglund &

    Shane Coppage




summer

reflections of a cat’s

tail thumping


    it's all angelology

    really


~Christina Chin &

    Jerome Berglund




monoculture:

there will be

no heirs


~Jerome Berglund




Happy World Air Day


Abnormal smog in cognition.

Nothing is visible.


Happy World Air Day.

~Partha Sarkar




The curve of a shell

Gentle effervescence

Quieting emotions


~Sarah Mahina Calvello




Being grateful

For the crumbs you throw

That’s not happening


~Sarah Mahina Calvello




Memories

Of you burning sage

It didn’t work


~Sarah Mahina Calvello




a peacock's tail

she's burdened

with beauty

~Bipasha Majumder (De)




For My Daughter

 

My wish to you is that

you need no words from your father.

 

Though if you decide you want them

they are here.

~Noah Berlatsky




mind your step

don’t slip

into autocracy


~Roberta Beach Jacobson




minding

the suet

wing walkers


~Roberta Beach Jacobson




I keep seeing things

in my peripheral view

but when I turn to look

they are gone

was it you?


~Jennifer Gurney




when right

is also obtuse

present tense


~Jennifer Gurney

 

Afternoon of June 17, 2025

 

 

Late Morning Photograph


it is frozen

in the river

shaking with sleeplessness


we go

into the fire

without reading

the fine print.

~John Dorsey




anti-Trump rally

OUR ONLY KING

on the signs of protesters

walking with

an Elvis impersonator

~John J. Dunphy




root rot we get what we don’t vote for

~John Hawkhead




smoker’s cough

the darkening signature

of executive orders

~John Hawkhead




We

 

clarity is and

you know

what everyone

is

 

I don’t want to know

what anyone is

there but

 

we are

stuck

with we

~Noah Berlatsky




acres of baruwa a mazeophobia childhood

~Arvinder Kaur




trimming duranta

this unending struggle

with chin hair

~Arvinder Kaur




loneliness --

the distance between

magpies

~Melissa Dennison




on the tarmac a snail

the precariousness

of existence

~Melissa Dennison



well-traveled

the path between

their bedrooms

~Stephanie Zepherelli



morning sunshine

on the church’s windowsill

a praying mantis

~Diane Webster




both children

sit in the red wagon

who will pull?

~Diane Webster


 

 

rusty key

till death do us part

still stuck in the lock

~Diane Webster




A loosened tooth


A loosened tooth.

A U-turn of a statesman.

~Partha Sarkar




Does revolution mean victory?


Does revolution mean victory?


Only an eclipse that comes after a while can answer.

~Partha Sarkar





the deer of Nara

know they will get nothing

from the biscuit sellers

the sellers give to the tourists

the tourists give to the deer

~Marie Derley


les daims de Nara

savent qu’ils n’obtiendront rien

des marchands de biscuits

les marchands donnent aux touristes

et les touristes donnent aux daims




blooming all over

the skeleton of an old car

morning glories

~Tejendra Sherchan




Sitting and sleeping on a middling mattress, sheets tangled round

lone wrinkled legs in a queen-size bed of abdication.

~Chris Callard




Innocence remained in her blue eyes afterwards, somehow.

~Chris Callard




Roiling, aggravated water solidifies the egg.

~Chris Callard




Poor Snoopy, deflated on the lawn, still clutching the Valentine’s heart,

awaiting the box and spot on the shelf for another year without love.

~Chris Callard




Doing your laundry, treasured touch, clothing endorphins attach to my hands.

Will this DNA lodge in me or simply be washed away?

~Chris Callard

 

 

 

War and peace—two words too often reduced to headlines or history lessons.

We invite poetic voices that reflect on war—not just in its physical violence, but in its ideological, emotional, and ecological forms. We are equally interested in poems that explore peace—not as utopia, but as a lived, flawed experience.

Whether you echo the ancient cries of Troy or the soft resilience of post-conflict healing, we are listening.

Bring us elegies and anthems, laments and lullabies. Between the ruin and the raga, there is space for poetry to breathe.

 ~The Wise Owl / The Daily Verse

 

 

Open again for your submissions: Horror Senryu Journal

https://horrorkujournal.blogspot.com/