Afternoon of June 28, 2025

 

the demon

chasing me

stumbles

I pause to let it

catch up

~John J. Dunphy

pyroclastic 

     flow

         the slow

  hardening

 of

  attitudes

~John Hawkhead

woodlouse memoir

damp

has a beginning

~C.X. Turner

one sock gone

mid-spin

conspiracy of lint

~C.X. Turner

writer's block

fluttering white butterfly

in the summer dusk

~Tejendra Sherchan

music blares

in a moving bus

dancing beanies

~Tejendra Sherchan

in my head

bird song

stops

~Noah Berlatsky

part sculptor

part sculptee...

love

~Jennifer Gurney

tree

poem

lovely

be it

apple

or orange

~dan smith

Paducah's easy,

try spelling syzygy

when you've got a broken toe

~Patrick Sweeney

going on a bit about electrons...

when their faces bent to phones

like Sartre on mescaline

~Patrick Sweeney

a victim of quantum systems

her work shoes

polished white

~Patrick Sweeney

worms in a dark puddle

all those drowned

and drowning hearts

~Patrick Sweeney

Human psychology

Human psychology...

The slanting rays through black clouds.

~Partha Sarkar

ophthalmologist's waiting room

receptionist helps a patient

find her husband

~John J. Dunphy

directing me

to Terminator 2

AI movie bot

~Douglas J. Lanzo

organic protest

vegetables tossed

from farmer’s market

~Douglas J. Lanzo

leading by accident

the most popular

body shop in town

~Douglas J. Lanzo

in the name

of a dead elderly man

allowance payments

~Tejendra Sherchan

 

she says I was born with it

~C.X. Turner

sharing elements of a star me

~Tejendra Sherchan

not what I say who I am

~John Hawkhead

societal healing too many decades to count

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

 

 

he gives pop quizzes to perfect strangers

~Patrick Sweeney

 

 

Afternoon of June 25, 2025

  

 

dogerwauling on a dogamaran outside the dogacombs

~Nicholas De Marino

She

moths

toward

the glow

where

it didn't

land.

~Nicholas De Marino

The squeaky ghost gets the exorcism.

~Nicholas De Marino

creaky old house

not the same ghost

I grew up with

~Randy Brooks

power washer

the addiction of

before and after

~Randy Brooks

to leave

or not

permanent twilight

~Tiffany Elise

lava like i know

how to chill

~Tiffany Elise

ssstatic the ego so easily shreds 

~Tiffany Elise

climate change

are cobras really moving

up the mountains?

~Tejendra Sherchan

Jung Avocado, Tesla Toast

What even is telepathy? I mean, just text me!

~Isaac Offski

stacking

exotic building blocks

in the microcosm

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

lonely hearts club please bring another lonely heart for a membership discount

~Martina Matijević

“You're not invited to my party!" - cancel culture before cancel culture

~Martina Matijević

How much patience would Buddha still have after a conversation with world leaders?

~Martina Matijević

my husband’s not just a pretty face

whose truth yours or mine

~Linda L Ludwig

even her hellos sound like a reproach

~dan smith

Propaganda 2025

too many

Leni Reifenstahls

not enough

Lilli Marlenes

~dan smith

When

every street corner

looks like a Brecht/Weill opera

and your brainwashed children

inform on you

maybe then you will know

what you threw away

~dan smith

This Place

He inna better place

What place? There is no other place

Well, better'n this place

~Isaac Offski

Please Do Not Call The Cops On Our Lawn

 

The long grass waves because

we have not cut the long grass.

 

The neighbors are irritated but the bees

are bobbing like idle balloons

 

amidst the weeds. Grow where you will,

grass, over the sidewalk and the dog poop

 

and the neighbors’ angry stares. We are

bad neighbors but the grass

 

hides rabbits and many faults

in its mute and shaggy dance.

~Noah Berlatsky

jellyfish

the door slams

fallen souffle

~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky

Never feed a stray cat, they said

we fed a stray cat…or two

they adopted us

now

we feed twenty-two cats

~Sherri J Moye-Dombrosky

Plates of moo shu

Celebration for one

Pouring jasmine tea

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Placing cookies

Under pillows

To dream of love

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

Good deeds

And some egg rolls

Along the way

~Sarah Mahina Calvello

first contact…

an alien bug

on my tomato

~Sharon Ferrante

it’s ok to be ghosted

I have all his LPs

~Sharon Ferrante

with a rotten peach I bribe the fly on the wall

~Sharon Ferrante

the lies sound familiar this murder mystery

~Sharon Ferrante

telling the cactus you’ll have water in about two weeks

~Sharon Ferrante

foreign policy sticking to our guns

~dan smith

I have no cursor, I am cursed

~dan smith

 

 

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/