Evening of April 15, 2024

 

fried egg and sausage

seeing my future

death stare

~Melissa Dennison




NUCLEAR

A little bit

of havoc and

a little bit of hell

is my idea of heaven

which is really

just as well in

a cockroach world.

~Lindsay McLeod




I did hear them say

the words "amplifying you"

Is it size or sound?

~Charles A. Perrone




UNBUTTERED


Now the thing we had in

the toaster has popped and

the smoke alarm is being...

melodramatic.


So I set to scraping the

burn from the bread

only to find that,

all I have left is the knife.

~Lindsay McLeod




one haiku moment

deserves another

double espresso latte

~Robert Epstein




Firm Commitment


vampires prefer their victims al dente

~John H. Dromey




is that a devil entendre

~Robert Epstein




Lack of Closure


three body problem

hitman’s compact car

teeny weeny trunk

~John H. Dromey




resonance

magnet orchestral tune

probes to the core

~J.L. Huffman




Luna's desk covers Sol

the king as the sunlike

trembles in fear.

~Fhen M.




solar eclipse—

what you hide from me

has its days numbered

~Nicoletta Ignatti




There's this cat who's sort of bold

He demands to be treated like gold

Forgetting the days he was a stray

In the backyard where he'd stay

Now he's used to all his meals bowled

~Jackie Chou




murder of crows

arrested motion

hangman’s rope drops

~J.L. Huffman




GENU FLECKS


She said she inherited

her cool from me and

her lies from her mother

so now I don't really

know whether to

believe her or not.

~Lindsay McLeod




family reunion—

the popcorn explodes

in the pan

~Nicoletta Ignatti




SOFT ALARM


Woken again by the scarlet fever

a visceral word through

the heartless receiver

I wondered how long since

I'd dared that voice when I

heard my catastrophe call.

~Lindsay McLeod




fly me to the moon

and house me with the other

introverts

~Robert Epstein

Afternoon of April 10, 2024

 

beginning to learn my bit part in the cosmic peekaboo

~Patrick Sweeney



unless I am corrupt never it could not

~J. D. Nelson



the mystical ardor in which she picks up a stone

~Patrick Sweeney



in the tree canopy nesting warheads

~Roberta Beach Jacobson



scraping the full-belly comments in the garbage can

~Patrick Sweeney



black mail blots in my lover’s copybook

~Patricia Hawkhead



fly is lectured idea rays

~J. D. Nelson



spider sense

at the base of my skull

the cup of his hand

~Patricia Hawkhead



A weather forecast

It will not rain in some days.

Suddenly it began to storm and rain.

I bow down to nature

The unpredictable met office.

~Partha Sarkar



highways closed yet

wind speeds at 100

miles per hour

~Jennifer Gurney



street art

canvases abandoned

at the curb

~Roberta Beach Jacobson



listen bub, unloading their carts

nobody wants a lecture

on the history of cinnamon

~Patrick Sweeney



Those

are not

my

packages.

~Noah Berlatsky



all these years, the number of leaves on a shamrock

~Patrick Sweeney



spoon fed thin soup indeed

~dan smith



in eschatological terror of long-range planning

~Patrick Sweeney



sliced green apple praying hands

~J. D. Nelson



the Uber driver has a solution to the smash and grab

~Patrick Sweeney

Afternoon of April 9, 2024

 

Social Anxiety



Approach social structures:

Fall apart immediately.

~Thomas Skahill




People travel hundreds of miles

for 4 minute eclipse

crosstown visit to see grandma too far

~Peter A. Witt




5 fleas

on the cold moon

dancing to spring

~Elliot Diamond




total eclipse

animals and endtimers

run for cover

~David Josephsohn




MTG says eclipse is warning from god

god says MTG needs a fact check

~Peter A. Witt




And how did it happen

that the sun and moon are in the same sky?

~Fhen M.




Duck, duck, duck

goose, goose, goose

splatter, spatter, splatter

doesn't matter, matter, matter

~Peter A. Witt




old frog

the sound of water

or ChatGPT

~Noah Berlatsky




Razor blades work better

than rollerblades when shaving

~Peter A. Witt




Almost every Easter, even though no spring chicken, I have a challenge with Easter eggs.



sugar moon

needing some sort of self control

chocolate Easter eggs

~Madeleine Kavanagh




palm reading the future I never wanted to know

~Mona Bedi




what katydid beneath the moon

~Tracy Davidson




dragons in the phoenix nest

your tax dollars

at work

~Mike Fainzilber




from irresistible

to invisible

middle age

~Mike Fainzilber




Kegari



Oh and no,

as yet I mold

an old

ugly soul

born for need

of control.

~Thomas Skahill




childhood…

when fairy tales

were a reality

~Mona Bedi

Morning of April 6, 2024


shadow on the wall flower

~Jennifer Gurney




waiting for the other shoe bam

~Jennifer Gurney

 

 

 

Touch me with your silent hand

You'll never touch me with your hand



Don't kiss me

My cheeks are too cold for my lips

I won't kiss you

Your cheeks are too cold for tears



Love flutters in the air like a butterfly

Love is still in the air just like it was in the beginning



Everything goes back to its place

You are without me and I am alone

~Mykyta Ryzhykh


(Originally published in Corporeal Lit Mag)


 

 

first date already finishing each other’s sentences soulmates

~Jennifer Gurney




pluck out my eyes at night

draw my pupils during the day

take the trash out of my head

I love you to the point of madness

my head is full of garbage from the past

~Mykyta Ryzhykh


(Originally published in Corporeal Lit Mag)




The remittent fever and the broken second empire


The drooping North Star. (The night never gets black)

The intensive arrets in the monastery.

Flies like a machine, the cream of anatomy of the soul.

Has been seeing the oddities of the wisdom the flight of the birds.

But surprisingly, there is egoism in death.

That means, will the monk leave the monastery?


No hole knows where the plain is.

Someone pinions the fire at the decayed knee.


Comes the letter from floodstriken waters.

~Partha Sarkar




on the wall of the Jerusalem café

no smoking

peace pipes allowed

~Daniel Birnbaum




lonely

I listen to the satnav

to drive home

~Daniel Birnbaum




sea wind

going to die in a plastic bag

the seabream

~Daniel Birnbaum




if not for totality God

~Roberta Beach Jacobson




who planned the eclipse during the standardized testing window

~Jennifer Gurney


Afternoon of April 4, 2024


mental gymnastics

a new event

uneven parallel universes

~Robert Witmer




what are we?


i ask myself

who we are,

and

what we are?

but no one can

ever answer,

perhaps,

sometimes we only

have questions instead of answers.

~linda m. crate




There is no provision for mornings



The active shrewdness. A merchant with a pshycotic net.

By the roadside, a dead puppy

And by the side of it, another puppy—hungry, weak

And under the grey sky and dry eyes a helpless mother...

Rush the casual labourers ignoring them

Yet pain has no colour in the inhabitant.


A system authoritative.


Come like clouds the despair and a replica of happiness in the glass.


Breaks its one of the hands the round triangle.

~Partha Sarkar




St. Patrick's Day

the street mission's bread green

with mold

~John J. Dunphy




even moldy cheese

was the beginning

of something good

~Jennifer Gurney




the glacier's lament

a sour lemon's

lost meringue

~Robert Witmer




the chalkboard list

of today’s pies

coconut cream

~Randy Brooks




coroner’s report

the body took no vow

of silence

~Randy Brooks




the beginning

or the end

of a rope

depends on which

way you’re headed

~Randy Brooks




Interplanetary Pen Pals


a wayward comet

I don’t feel threatened by it

it’s headed your way

~John H. Dromey




Truthful Consequence



cardiologist

says I cannot tell A-Fib

doesn’t get the job

~John H. Dromey




haiku contest

the em dashes

stand in a queue

~Debarati Sen




icarus reborn


we could never

have flying cars,

you'd leave them

on e and then fall out of

the sky, leaving behind

only metal and shattered

bones.

~linda m. crate




dancing to an old 45

scratches

on my blue suede shoes

~Robert Witmer




at the wall of a fast food outlet fruit seller

~Gillena Cox




VR tour meets self-driving truck

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel




a zebra's zither in the lion's jaws

~Robert Witmer




morning rhythms sync weight of a falling blossom

~Gillena Cox




Grandma did nothing for her last seventeen years

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel




a wild one stormy wind trying to steal my

~Gillena Cox




You cannot open a door

without a cat getting through.

The solution is to never open a door

and just sit there with the cats.

~Noah Berlatsky




the dreaming



i still remember

the dreaming,

but sometimes i

don't remember

how to get there.

~linda m. crate




last squab

on a makeshift spit

I'll miss birds

~David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Afternoon of April 2, 2024


 late capitalism

the books i don’t like

for décor

~Aline da Silveira




Togetherness

is when he loses his butt

and I gain it.

~Nolcha Fox




casting ripples

upon god's reflection

the cat's tongue

~Kelly Moyer




  true believers—

                 down 

                     the 

                     rabbit 

                       holier

                        -than

                       -thou

~David Josephsohn




witchgrass breaking off all contact

~John Hawkhead




left-spiraled snail swaged with tree rings

~Elliot Diamond




dark forest letting alexa in

~John Hawkhead




confessional the cold comfort of penance

~David Josephsohn




wringing in my ears the chicken’s neck

~John Hawkhead




Hope is a hamster wheel

without a hamster

or a wheel.

There is some hamster poop though.

~Noah Berlatsky




why do I always

underestimate the boxes

needed to move

~Jennifer Gurney




MalTease

Falcon

4 door

~dan smith




felt like years

the time it took to separate

our record albums

~Jennifer Gurney




Relativity


4th cousin

5 times removed

Emily Dickinson

good to know

but no good

at Costco

~dan smith




spring journey

the petals on the ground say

that we must return

~Marie Derley




easter morning

an oh so fine

crack in her shell

~Kelly Moyer




rain

Easter sunrise service

minus sun

~John J. Dunphy




a whiff of cold air

someone’s late

for the eucharist

~Maya Daneva




herxheimer reaction

the spirochetes’

new cosmic address

~Kelly Moyer




you haven't seen the chase,

the tearing of feathers,

the breaking of the bones,

you're busy cleaning the backyard.

~Fhen M.




For Sale:  Derby Skates


You would have thought

they’d be satisfied.

But, no.

Tonight, I saw the listing.

The spirochetes

have put my derby skates

up for auction on eBay

for thrice what I paid.


As if . . .

they haven’t taken enough.

~Kelly Moyer