The Lake In June

Bullfrog sounds the bass
As thunderhead cymbals crash-
Summer symphony

*

Bob Strickland
(previously published in Red Poppy Review)

Shimmer

Starling in barn rafters—
feathers shake galaxies of dust
onto a ladder of light.

*

Michael Dwayne Smith

Rambutan
chôm chôm*
Demure curled lashes
A moment of suction
delicious!

*chôm chôm means rambutan in Vietnamese

*

David Ashton

The moonlit spider
roams a dewy mandala
that fills like a sail.

*

M. Flynn Ragland

when she turns away
i swap our straws
and drink.

*

Anton Frost

Bird Bones

Rheumatic fingers smoking a cigarette
skinny as a piece of string.

*

Ian Mullins

After the service:
Wheelchair ramp
Leaning
Up against the house.

*

Robert Demaree

porridge on
brazier...
New Year meal

*

Hema Ravi

Taxis zigzagging across Broadway Street
drizzle like butter over popcorn

*

Devlin De La Chapa
Boyslut

HER EARLIEST MEMORY

She had a cleft lip;
twelve surgeries in a month.
Food came pureed, but once
Nurse snuck real turkey, covert turkey from the bird itself,
turkey a bit dry, turkey whose turkey strands tickled
the roof of her mouth and the roof of her
mouth laughed.

*

Quinn White

Umbrellas take flight
On a windy afternoon
So many blackbirds

*

Armando Corbelle

pure sadness

to reach and find
the candy bowl empty

*

Isabela J. Oliveira
stone and bits of sky

SWANS ON THE POND

The silent way
they glided
side by side,

I couldn’t decide
which one
was the lover,

which one
the beloved.

*

Howie Good
Apocalypse Mambo

white eggs
on a black table
growing
invisible
in the brooding darkness

*

James Newton

arriving home from camping

a slug of custardy mud clings to the pumped-down airbed

*

Fiona Robyn

(apologies for the breaks in small-stone-service. we moved house, etc. I'm dealing with submissions right now!)

Ablution Three

Drying my hands -
a royal wave
smothered
in an IKEA towel.

*

Barbara Blake

sleeping
with strangers
evening commute

*

Lucas Stensland

cherry print
cotton blouse

held together with
a safety pin

*

Nina Buck

mint still alive, miracle, and the lemon verbena still green. frost on its way, it bites already!

*

Rosie Fleming

After my morning walk, my house was so quiet I felt the throbbing inside my ears. I was stuck at the front door, grabbing for limbs that I had dropped off. It is scary to walk through a wish fulfilled and lonely to pretend you are understood.

*

Sheila Cameron
Watching the Paint Dry

At the bank, an old man with a pram, wrapped in a blue blanket, a puppy sleeping.

*

Brenda Skinner

train pane mist
she rubs on
the other side

*

Ramesh Anand

Your final kindness

a daffodil
single, yellow

to tell me
it could not have been otherwise

*

Nina Buck