Afternoon of April 19, 2023

it was the nitrate of mercury that made the hatters mad

~Patrick Sweeney

a piece of meteoritic iron dug up from the turnip patch   Buddha and the stars

~Patrick Sweeney

convict

now in prison

even in his dreams

~John J. Dunphy

beating heart of deep night

ticking lizard

~Bidyutprabha Gantayat

their smiles

posed and held

zoom call

~Linda L. Ludwig

sandstone resembling the Madonna and Child

~Patrick Sweeney

The Great Blafigria:

The end of the world lies inside You.

~Daniel de Culla

Holding up

On the wall

it sticks,

hold tiles:

each one

in its place.

Grout.

Who thinks

it holds the house

together?

~Duane L. Herrmann

Dining in

Sitting here

waiting for food

is what we do.

I’ve strung my lines,

food will come.

I’m energetic,

but now wait

for flyer

to be tangled.

~Duane L. Herrmann

constellations of bleach stains on my raggedy trousers   Paris Fashion Week

~Patrick Sweeney

   The sun rises

                    the ebb tide flows

~Sarah Das Gupta

Outside our apartment

gusts of spring wind

can't blow away my diagnosis

~Steve Van Allen

With Irvng Stettner:

Why I Write

Poetry Etcetera.

Hell,

birds sing

Don't they?

~Daniel de Culla

Morning of April 19, 2023

half-asleep

you visit the shrink

in fifty minutes

you emerge

half-awake

~Ruth Holzer

volcanic uplift a clean train

~Jerome Berglund

hiding what the scale says my fat furry slippers

~Ruth Holzer

Scandinavia chain of evidence

~Jerome Berglund

the long con tortoise shell glasses

~Jerome Berglund

yes the flea

had second thoughts about

biting her

yet in the end he bit

her on her end (the end)

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

before the wildflowers

i am only

a shadow

~Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

meme template

infinitely replicatable

hooded sweatshirt

~Jerome Berglund

cultural competence

a breeze blows

the trenchcoat open

~Kelly Moyer

and then i turned to him and said

listen to the highway

it sounds like death

~Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

I never thought

I'd be taking a little

yellow pill

on every occasion

but there it is

~Ruth Holzer

carrying memories

wrapped in a white sheet

the hearse car

~Debarati Sen

insomnia

I count

dead people

~Ruth Holzer

Evening of April 18, 2023

gym argument

we fail to work out

our differences

~Andrew Markowski

I want a wall

all I receive

is a beaded curtain

~Richard Bailly

dementia —

last summer was

twenty years ago

~Debarati Sen

swallowing my words a black hole

~Kimberly Kuchar

nightfall a conversation without speech

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

I (nuclear) solemnly (Armageddon) swear

~Lee Hudspeth

denied parole

an inmate breaks out

into tears

~Andrew Markowski

 

fossils

a final impression

fuels the end of time

~Robert Witmer

gun law

the right to bear

others’ pain

~Robert Witmer