Morning of May 12, 2023

 

at least   two years

of my      formal education

spent      watching

a gray     squirrel

going      up and down

a beige   sycamore tree

~Patrick Sweeney

expanding my vocabulary

through osmosis

I nap

while resting my head resting on

a dictionary

~John J. Dunphy

over a calcined stream

a ruined bridge —

nuclear umbrella

~Robert Witmer

a sudden rain

hissing over the desert

snake eggs

~Robert Witmer

egg moon —

a wart on my foot

starts to itch

~Mona Bedi

in the May rains two worms flex their elbows

~Patrick Sweeney

spring wind this wish to be a cloud

~Mona Bedi

the train that left without you separation moon

~Mona Bedi

radioactive waste where the poet ate the flesh of sei whale

~Patrick Sweeney

mice

wheeling halos

gold man sacks

~Robert Witmer

the do re mi

of an orange tree

reggae sundown

~Robert Witmer

the poet's garret

filling with shadows

a fly in a pickle jar

~Robert Witmer

squeezing a tomato he considers a friend

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

 

 

exploring alternatives to the real world dreams

~Joseph P. Wechselberger

a moth

sees itself

dancing on the wall

she snuffs the candle

and cries

~Robert Witmer

AI

She fingers her phone,

Flummoxed,

App-lessly disconnected,

Phonemes phoning home,

Hopelessly phony,

Pigments

In figments

Of our minds.

~Robert Witmer

Yoga

Your center

a round hole,

square body

jammed in.

~Chad Parenteau

deepening autumn

I rewrite

my death poem

~Mona Bedi

hazy moon

the blank space

on the Mother’s Day card

~Wai Mei Wong

Afternoon of May 7, 2023

 

~Brian Konopasek

 

their son

died 20 mass shootings ago

22 . . . 23

~Roberta Beach Jacobson

Mindscape

 

From my weeping springs a river

that flows past mountains razed

 

into a valley where the sun

rises and sets on mourning                   

 

and the road not taken, which snakes

around the dark side of my mind

 

forming nightmares sharpened

by starlight and crystal tears

             

slicing holes through a memory,   

half-forgotten, filled with weeping.

~Lauren McBride

I procrastinate

by doing

the wrong work.

~Noah Berlatsky

By the inkwell

Plunge thy drop

      Listen

~gc gould

 

Evening of May 6, 2023

Shy Man Blues

I’m not sure wot to say or even if I should

If I could open up it’d feel good

Can’t express myself without half a dozen beers

I got the shy man blues when I ain’t got no booze

My emotions and thoughts are bound up inside

If I could say wot I want, I’d have a smoother ride

I plays the strong silent type / But it’s a disguise

a week of waiting for Friday nite’s a very bad exercise.

Shy man blues / Shy man blues

There’s no excuse for the shy man blues.

~David Boyle

Fangs devour my day

in their hunger.

Leaving only the pain of dreams.

~Christine Emmert

Flower Moon

bloom beams whitewash

the bedroom

~JL Huffman

irony —

global warming seminar

inside an ac hall

~Debarati Sen

final exam

a student's shirt

stained with espresso

~John J. Dunphy

pink flamingos

the wedding photoshopped pic

with bridesmaids

~Mirela Brailean

dusk

her kohl completes

an arc

~Daipayan Nair

sea breeze

I am never

alone

~Daipayan Nair

Gurneys Norman's

Jack and the Monster is coming

scrapbooking precious lives

from the local press

carefully selected.

~Daniel de Culla

Empty Streetlights

Rub off the stain of people please.

Hustling, Bustling, Rustling like paper leaves.

Unlike the birds

Whose habitat was inhabited

By you, and by me.

Let the trees talk to vacant streets.

Let the streets speak to empty lights.

Leave the gossips to the sky ones, o thee

Click that candid photo

and vanish into your candied beehive.

~Ms. Nobody

The rash spreads

over my heart,

denying remedy.

~Christine Emmert

Lost serenities

in the buzz of time.

~Christine Emmert

draped

in a dusky red saree

the mirror

~Daipayan Nair