Afternoon of February 13, 2023

first confessions

the priest sips brandy

from his thermos

~Bisshie

opening acrylics

I find myself in the middle

of a mandala

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

lovers

in fresh cut grass

the sting of red ants

~Sharon Ferrante

Forest of ribbons

hang from hundreds

of Valentine balloons

~Steve Van Allen

piecing together yesterday’s moth-eaten dreams

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

yesterday is fading — the traces all unwind

~Julie A. Dickson

hum(eow)an

~Lorelyn Arevalo

lip slur of a French horn

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Say quotes to each other instead of holes.

~Noah Berlatsky

hackers cooking up spam

~Sharon Ferrante

Braxton Hicks

the midwife brews

another cup of tea

~Bisshie

Afternoon of February 10, 2023

yet (another) bank seizure (dead)line app(roach)es

~Lorraine A Padden

diving deep into my fears water child

~Akhila Mohan

feeling incomplete quarter horse

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

churchandstate

~Lorraine A Padden

soapbox orator

 nodding in agreement

 the pigeons

~Wanda Amos

the puppet master

pulling

the strings

she ponders…

to go or stay

~Wanda Amos

How can a daisy tell

If he loves me or

Loves me not

~Jennifer Gurney

in this twilight

about longing and love

your shadow never disappears

~Nani Mariani

cries ignored

wolf wolf wolf

the wolf is us

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Against Expression

humidity forty-nine percent

unknown, unbroken

error message

~Noah Berlatsky

We were required

To wear dresses to school in

Michigan winters

So we tucked our

Skirts into snow pants for

The cold walk to school

~Jennifer Gurney

Afternoon of February 6, 2023

Did you sell

your soul for

pink Cadillac illusions?

~Keith Snow

going minimal

not much to count

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

I'm snakebit tracing

the arc of this poem—where

is the anecdote?

~James Penha

Dryer sings when done

Fridge beeps when open too long

Appliance chorus

~Jennifer Gurney

L=A=L=A=L

You can't have art without heart.

What about a ham sandwich?

Yes, yes. It's quite dead.

~Noah Berlatsky

pop! bottling the epiphany

~Kelly Moyer

alone

at the mercy of mountain

and the snow

~Sreenath

Full moon glows

    moving through twisted bare branches 

as if they weren't there 

~Steve Van Allen

a fly

in the melting

butter

~Sreenath

melted butter⁐flies freely in the sun

~Kelly Moyer

Afternoon of February 3, 2023

calling bell

nobody comes in

one goes away

~Bipasha Majumder

Cyborgs

without brains

smoosh.

~Noah Berlatsky

3 am -

a shriek from the top

of the wardrobe

~Juliet Wilson

hissing

from a straw blade

a praying mantis

gets eaten by one

less pious

~Christina Chin / M. R. Defibaugh

Hives

Who says the monk cilice shirt,

hair of sackcloth, penance ash,

cannot be simply fleas at work,

lashes, stripes, the welts of bites,

or even hives, bee-keeping work?

~Stephen Kingsnorth

air raid

a mum-to-be writhing

in labour pain

~Bipasha Majumder

new rank promises of war

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

picking willow twigs

from the frozen moat

(he’s no jesus)

~David Cox

hototogisu

I still don’t understand you

hototogisu

~Noah Berlatsky