Afternoon of December 18, 2022

drifting clouds

after all these years

my father’s handwriting

~John Pappas

eye to eye

we meet

in silence

~Katherine E Winnick

cinnamon tea

the past comes

to life again

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

Catharsis

The day you left, I threw up

stardust and wildflowers,

big fat gulf oysters,

zydeco and Chicago blues.

Just when I thought

I was empty,

out came a sprig

of baby’s breath, stilled

on the journey out to sea.


~Kelly Moyer

scratched vinyl a degenerative disc disease


~Kelly Moyer

buried in the footnotes a half-remembered smile

~John Pappas

unicorn hunting a three-way potato

~Kelly Moyer

the art of loving an oil-based pigment

~Kelly Moyer

now when she writes a love letter I

~John Pappas

rotten apples

eliciting

an inspirational quote

~Kelly Moyer

and everything smells like rotting meat

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

the squirrel

playing chicken

on the road

one too many

— times

~Linda L Ludwig

em dash

the crows fly in

to roost

~John Pappas

for once

in this poem

a crow is just a crow

~John Pappas

low-country christmas

the warmth

of a biscuithead kitten

~Kelly Moyer

night cry

the tendrils of

a shredded star

~John Pappas

of myself a sliver of ginger root or moonshadow

~Kelly Moyer

at the base

of the shrine

the prayer of ants

~John Pappas

Morning of February 26, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

two shoes minus one poltergeist

~Lafcadio

π 

8 

1 

4 

2 

15 

@

~Lafcadio

around and around

pictures on a spinning top

of extinct species

~John Hawkhead

sudden nightfall

pulling tarpaulin

over a face

~John Hawkhead

others are shackled to walls or masts

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

chasing people down / yelling / "you ate my brother!"

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

If I referenced a classical myth or a jazz musician

you would have to love me, my Pulitzer judge of the heart.

~Noah Berlatsky

lost wallet

retracing my steps

i find myself

~Stephanie Zepherelli

war orphan

finding a teddy bear

with one eye

~Stephanie Zepherelli

the actress

eyelids all aflutter

a moth in a jar

~Mike Gallagher

early hours

crackling cockroaches

underfoot

~Mike Gallagher

ruminating —

a mountain goat treads

the track less taken

~Mike Gallagher

reflections in the mirror

all the voices

in my head

~Mike Fainzilber

 

 

 

power cut

the silence

of the lamps

~Mike Fainzilber

 

Evening of December 31, 2022

seasonal affective disorder

the fresh cut flowers

are dead to me

~Kerry J Heckman

they burnt the candle

at both ends

and melt in the middle

~Linda L Ludwig

food stalls

award-winning chefs

get drunk

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

drowning

in their element

aquarium trolls

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

when golden arms

thaw frozen bones

stones set sail

~C.F. Tash

twinkle

tiny stars

eyeing us

with their state of the art

semaJ telescope

gathering data

snapping photos

of man's undoing

archived as

fallen stars

~Lorelyn De la Cruz Arevalo

keep

your second line longer

if you can

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

i am the diamond

the coal you threw away once

this city of mines

~Aftab Yusuf Shaikh

Afternoon of October 20, 2024

 

Poet Empty Bottle

~Michael Lee Johnson

ugh

go away

mirror

go away

ugh

~Noah Berlatsky

In Praise of Wooden Shoes or Where's a Luddite When You Need One

~dan smith

self-employed no one to complain to

~Stacy Taylor

we are the movies at God's multiplex

~dan smith

my eye-hops on her textual surface around the target words

~Vijay Prasad

68 years old

and don’t feel a day

over 67

~Stacy Taylor

Origami

If my paper hen could lay eggs,

how would the eggs be folded?

~Marie Derley

Hands

Guts in one,

the weight of the world

in the other.

So much to bear.

So much to feel.

Fingers twitching,

nails clawing.

Flesh against flesh.

Is this what a grip is for?

~R James Sennett Jr

shorter nights

little space for shooting stars

at our age

~John Hawkhead

we built gigantic engines

we travelled to the moon

we misunderstood Waste Not

~dan smith

if it's true

what Christians say

I'm going to hell

~Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

mending an old quilt

each night’s sleep cycle

a little deeper

~John Hawkhead

shine on

forty-foot cowboy

exit now

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

foggy shore . . . 

memory’s silence

eroding my belief

in goodbyes

~Timothy Daly

Photon

Because the soul is light, scurrying from point to shadow,

because light can fracture if interrupted—

because the fracturing of light is accomplished by hanging 

a simple glass charm from the curtain rail above my kitchen sink—

I think of you, driving down the mountain, the long, straight

road from map-point to city, your dashboard charm swinging,

your headlight fractured, your mirror cracked.

~Kathryn Reese

subglacial lake

the gelatinous maw

everts

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

unedited

I want to say love me

love my text,

consider converting

all the selfies

on my dating profile

to screenshots of poems.

~Kathryn Reese

blind date

she looks for

a way

to let him

down gently

~Randy Brooks

any old pot

of coffee

I drink it

on ice

the day after

~Randy Brooks

don’t think

of a monkey

too late

~Randy Brooks