– J.B.

   

scattered oak leaves…
from the smoker, lump charcoal
white with ash

     – Joshua Gage

   

            waking
            from a nightmare…
            cat on my chest

                 – Stewart C Baker

   

Trash

You put lipstick on a pig
When you had Aphrodite in your bed

     – Doniell Cushman

   

            after the equinox a charm of hummingbirds

                 – Thomas Smith

   

Mediterranea monostica

     – Athena Melliar

   

The Eavesdropping Heart

When cornered, the heart circles
      the same white door. Then they have one

ear, no eyes. They do not look
       forward to those little zippers

retrieving the hurt from freezer floors,
       two beats between clasps knocking.

     – H. L. Kim

   

Revisiting the Canyon

(The Clown asks an Audience Member what their favorite book is. Magically, they produce a copy from their back pocket. The Clown duct-tapes the favorite book to a bible, thus making one big book.)

     – Henry Goldkamp

   

            On Memorial
            Day weekend, a poet stops
            by while I mow lawn,
            pulls up in his Subaru,
            jokes about my form, waves bye.

                 – Nathanael O’Reilly

   

Spectral

theme of the night thrush, screech of
the hawk. A ghost moth, ancient scholar,
falls into the dog’s water bowl. Ignore it,
like Brueghel’s Icarus, a drowned flame
in the bay. Go in fear of abstractions.

     – C.J. Weeks

   

– Shloka Shankar

   

            A Short Poem

            Got drunk

            Big Momma’s House 2

            Big Momma’s House 3

            Big Momma’s House 4

            We could be so happy

   

                 – Casper Kelly

   

            sleepless giant
            the ceiling fan turns
            into a windmill

                 – Kat Lehmann

   

Destination TBD

In a wastebasket by the dryer
thin dryer sheets pile their scented wreckage
onto a child’s drawing of clouds.

*

The Beauty of Her Cursing

Her voice trembles when she says
shit, as if she has to squeeze it out
between God’s lips.

     – Jim Daniels

   

            common daisies
            in gnarled fingers—
            cemetery visit

                 – Vikas Sehra

   

            a red persimmon . . .
            as the air quality dips
            lipstick on my mask

                 – Monica Kakkar

   

     – Debbie Strange

   

Survival Instincts

Attention: to isolate down here is naïve. Saplings
Don’t obstruct your foraging
In the rain. Removal tolls. Soon your
Body will need fuel.

     – S. D. Dillon

   

Confessions

“I could have been filthy rich if that was the path I so desired!”
the fox said to the hedgehog.
“And I could have played Jesus in The Passion of Christ if I’d
agreed to wear a wig and cut my nails!” the hedgehog responded,
throwing back his head for emphasis. . .

     – Jeffrey Zable

   

            abridged dictionary
            bees covered 
            in volcanic ash
            have it all
            dealing from bottom
            of the deck

                 – Jerome Berglund

*

            funnel cloud
            love poems
            of a sort

                 a dropped peach
                 falls once

                 – Jerome Berglund / Christina Chin

   

     – J G Orudjev

   

poison-ivy;
a family visit
reinvented as a flower

     – John Grey

   

G A I A
A I N T
I N T O
A T O M

     – Akua Lezli Hope

   

            Patina of a Well-Rained Street

            your own private
            whiskey rebellion

                 – Joanne Merriam

   

            groupthink I don’t know what to

                 – Debbie Strange

   

Memphis

Radio tuned, the dial’s end.
Windows bottomed, circling wind.
If you kiss me, I’ll quit smoking.

     – Timothy Tarkelly

   

            Summer 2024

            Schools on break everywhere.
            Gaza bombed incessantly,
            all classes halted.

            *

            Gas After a Colonoscopy

            Lactobacillus babies
            settling back in.
            The only kind of
            colonization one needs.

                 – Shikha S. Lamba

   

     – Marianne Paul

   

returning 
the hummingbird’s glance
winter’s end

     – Deborah A. Bennett

   

            leafless branch barely writing nowadays

                 – Timothy Daly

   

            wild river
            a ribbon of ivy
            clings to the ruins

                 – C.X. Turner

   

sardine clouds the doctrine of a sea-lark

     – Shloka Shankar

   

Chicago Existed in a Dream

of sun on squat fridges,
ripening bananas and wood
counters, an abode I can’t
imagine in winter, standing
in the pale of twilight with
the fridge open and nothing
in the basil flowerpot.

     – Grace Kwan

   

            Up

            up.
            up.
            up.

   

                 – Matthew Klane

   

– allison anne

   

NEXT >
< BACK
INDEX