Afternoon of June 3, 2023

insomnia —

smoking up

the moonlight

~Debarati Sen

your ankles swell    when the sap rises

~Rich Magahiz

take this mask    the Zen is thick today

~Rich Magahiz

Hail

That shreds just-planted flowers

Damn

~Jennifer Gurney

shower of fragments

brick wall sloughs off

time exfoliation

~Julie A. Dickson

steps

up a bronze sculpture

the wind chill

a negative number

of blossoms

~Christina Chin / M. R. Defibaugh

bakery

new employee focuses on

his roll model

~John J. Dunphy

drowning I slice seaweed with my invisible sword

~Sharon Ferrante

where the end is always near flash fiction

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

staying indoors with my writer’s block all day rain

~Mona Bedi

the itch to just

hit send and regret it

submission jitters

~A.J. Anwar

FEAR

crept in: not sure how.

Came silently like the snow;

like a virus on air.

Does not matter how--it's here,

fear, I know it well.

~Wayne F Burke

quicksilver

in retrograde

toxic chaos

~JL Huffman

new friends

I sit on the stool

that falls over

~Sharon Ferrante

poet of the year AI

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Poets!

Lower your standards

and you too can enter heaven.

~Noah Berlatsky

Afternoon of June 2, 2023

Late sun glows orange

on branches that twist

into nightmares

~Steve Van Allen

Civil

I live with a rude zombie

mumbling through the house

cutting me off as I talk

only apologies I hear

are mine, saying" I'm sorry

you stepped on me again"

I know she will slowly eat

my mind, I'm just asking

her to say please first, thanks, after...

~Keith Snow

the waistline of the hula hoop king when the Russians owned the moon

~Patrick Sweeney

minutes after the eclipse the whole moon to myself

~Patrick Sweeney

she's tinkering again with my static universe

~Patrick Sweeney

White knuckles and an acceptance of turbulence.

~Laurie Kuntz

Life decisions, based on clouds, mud, and flowers.

~Laurie Kuntz

evolving into beings that stare at screens

~Patrick Sweeney

In the summer

Every day feels like

The weekend

~Jennifer Gurney

garden party

taking bets

on the frog:

will it jump

or croak

~Wanda Amos

sharing space

I contemplate life

from the small room

two squares

or three

~Wanda Amos

Going back in time,

women fought for their own souls.

Here we go again.

~Angela Evans

between

a wail and a whimper

life

~Rupa Anand

Your gentle touch

To get my attention

Does

~Jennifer Gurney

waterfall

where I could never

think loud enough

~Ron Scully

historic postcards

the wire spinner squeals

backwards

~Ron Scully