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