Afternoon of April 5, 2023


Spider

There was a spider

at the bottom of the ocean,

dealing cards to players

in the casino.

~Marc Isaac Potter



clean window

fly tut-tuts

on its way out

~Kavita Ratna



school shooting

a permanent tooth forever

halfway in

~David Oates



My father’s dead

And I’m watching tv

And I’m eating cheese

My father’s dead

And I’m flossing

My father’s dead and

My father’s dead

~David Oates



newspaper photo

a dog lying in the road

eyes closed

kindly caption writer:

and a tired dog’

~David Oates



Death is always waiting


until she isn’t looking,

when she forgets precautions

against gruesome, grisly end.

Disaster movies can’t prepare her,

crisis rations wrapped in foil

in her bunker won’t forestall


choking on a bone.

~Nolcha Fox



Leaking Chocolate


A chocolate candy gun,

the heat of the barrel,

leaking onto the boy’s

bare hand,

Leaking onto the boys.

~Marc Isaac Potter



April fool’s day

on the cherry blossom

a layer of snow

~Françoise Maurice



the queen’s banjo

will be missed

at the hootenanny

~David Oates



sun drunk laying with the pavement snake

~Kelly Moyer


locusts downgraded from plague to misdemeanor

~Kelly Moyer


Morning of April 5, 2023


weariness and then a snail

~Keith Evetts



bird nest 

my wake-up hair draws

a sparrow’s whistle

~Daya Bhat



office desk —

another poem

in the dustbin

~Debarati Sen



old school

again grandpa points

the wrong finger

~Daya Bhat



spider web a map of the United States

~Keith Evetts



Sort of Like Tap Dancing


When, O'Malley scratches pad.


When, my fingers pluck

Fishdom's keyboard.


When you text

you love me.

~Keith Snow



frogs…

I can still sing

like them

~Keith Evetts



earthquake —

the little girl

saves her doll

~Debarati Sen


Morning of April 3, 2023


Century 31  vacant dead-eyed clockworks  

~Richard Magahiz



monochrome sky —

she skips

my question

~Daipayan Nair



birds nesting in palms

while below we’re without wings

wrapped like babes in arms

~James Penha



the table

the night i died

i fell

asleep

with my glasses on

~Kelly Moyer



She hoped a long hot shower

could wash away anxiety

of simply living

~Steve Van Allen



triangles for lunch

spheres for dinner

mmm, breakfast

~Richard Magahiz



Chewing on the sweet

Ends of field grass as the

Tassels tickle

~Jennifer Gurney



the old music box

plays Haunted Slumber

as the tiny dancer spins

ship manifest

my grandmother a toddler

~Linda L. Ludwig / Kathleen Trocmet



Supergloom

~Mariel Herbert



curtsies to Dalmatia,  Queen of Spots

~Richard Magahiz



Pigeonholed

You tell me you’re ahead,

but I believe you to be

more of a foot. Perhaps

it has something to do

with the way you knot

your tie at the ankle

or the bulge of buttons

at the knobs of your knees.

~Kelly Moyer



childless but the cat

~Roberta Beach Jacobson



sending five to ten at once bumblebees

~Mariel Herbert



Killer Sheep
 

I am not in the yakuza,” I explain

to the owner of the ramen shop.

But, you are wearing sunglasses,”

the man replies with a tremble

to his voice. I remove my shades

and order a bowl of soup,

which I slurp while crocheting

a few simple granny squares

for the body bag we’re crafting

at the neighborhood Baptist church.

~Kelly Moyer



egoless at last the moon's face dims

~Richard Magahiz