parsnips in the trug
still damp

*

Paul Smith
Paper Moon

Public Transit Tanka

on stuffed bus, a few
stray strands of hair static teth-
ered to my shoulder:
only bond I share with this
perfect stranger turned away

*

Chas Holden

Garlic, perfume, wine:
the spirits of nights carried home on the trains.

*

J Adamthwaite

Cycles

Nutrients leak from the dead.

*

Dominic Ward

Shadow

Towerblocks cradle us like bookends:
I'm a slim volume, you're
leatherbound, slightly foxed.

The city loves us today.
We could be advertising
Ray Ban, Ricard.

Late sun casts us
as giants on the sidewalk.

*

Tamar Yoseloff

My teaspoon just broke. One moment I was stirring my tea with it, the next moment it caught fire and blew up in my hand. I threw it out the window into the street. Might have hit the neighbor in the head. Finding it hard to care considering the state of my hand.

*

Ben Pullar

icecold fog
- the very special smell
of Italian coffee bar

*

Kirsten Nørgaard
sten saks papir

on writing

bright clot of
wool felt. stuck throat.
Move pencil,
move

*

Beth Balousek

working in
sunny Silicon Valley
Israeli Jews
shop around for
Palestinian hummus

*

Chen-ou Liu
Poetry in the Moment

Gazing at a log

I realized someone is gazing back -

Tree Frog in the shade of the bark

*

Michelle Hed

Mother's old breadboard,

now mine ~ loaf by fragrant loaf

my floury self gives.

*

Patricia Ranzoni

In And Out Of the Pocket in My Head

28. If I saw a tape replay of my life I would then understand what hell is

*

G. David Schwartz

serpentine ballerinas slither gracefully through my ballroom

*

Richard Cody
RCodywrites

biting into a small, sweet strawberry grown by someone you love.

*

Katie

Next Year's Mist

Now, wait a moment,
to say this is it,
that the oaks, maples, silver birch
don't matter, that hawthorne, lilac, forsythia
are not accountable,
that I will be as next year's mist,
more nebulous than directive, less than here.

*

Frank C. Praeger

every birthday
brings me
closer
to the child
inside

*

T. D. Ingraham

The cherry tree wears the rain like beads,
its naked branches heavy with jewels.

*

J Adamthwaite

even the bitter relations
become sweet jack-fruit-peals
in the shadow of separation

*

Kaa.Na.Kalyanasundaram

For my 54th birthday

At the riverbank
I toss my dry leaf
into the current.

*

Tamra Hays

ebb tide

wave song in mezza voce
mancando
water marked.

*

Beth Balousek

In And Out Of the Pocket in My Head

if I am ready and do not know a word may come across and it will read until I get so sure at what I want to know before being told that I will walk abound and see the peace wisdom invites

*

G. David Schwartz

october rose
one red deeper
than the valley

*

Matt Morden
Morden Haiku

go back
to where you come from --
a stream of my piss
Lake Ontario unmoved

*

Chen-ou Liu
Poetry in the Moment

(happy birthday to me)

I stop mowing

for small toads

*

Michelle Hed

Round rock where she swam

to bathe ~ damsels on my toes,

do you miss her too?

*

Patricia Ranzoni

She was a weight under water;
no ship's anchor -- the iron sphere
chained to the leg of a drowned man.

*

Gareth Trew

To study mountains well
Sometimes you have to bang
Your head against
The clouds.

*

Denis Robillard

fork-glass clatter --

the wedding MC draws names

to see who will kiss

*

Richard Stevenson

3 floors

above

the alley

where

2 young

men

examine

1 paycheck

a window

box

of

geraniums

and

a gray

satellite

dish

and--

what made

me look--

wind

chimes

ringing

out

*

d. f. tweney

tinywords

Autumn leaves
did not fall alone

*

Marsha Robinson