by Ryan Stone

by KosmicKKWRogers

Under emeralded blades
she sings glow
tuned to radio breath,

winded city into underworld

she lines paved highway with
radiating lymph nodes,
five-footed rabbits.

Monologue with holed
tongue, lick green

taste of Rocky Road Flat
flavor, lick fuzz of weaved dream-weaver
lineage hooked into
Ginsberg rant on canker-hex,

who else stands in nuclear
hands, fingers painted with tiny
brush, dip, dipped with poison?

Pinhole poison, hers is not the hand,

by C. Ciregna

Desert roars erase
morning fog,
coffee setting in.

Last night's
howling leftovers:
desert roars erasing

my dreams etch-a-sketch
red-framed:
my coffee sets in.

Struggling
back to origins,
desert roars erasing

memories of children,
hopscotch, my
coffee brewing

strength
even as
desert roars erase
and unsettle me.

198th Weekly Poetry Contest

by Jake Tringali

by KosmicKKWRogers

Phantom Pain
There was some mud dug out of his deep eyes,
white skeleton always exo on him,
always waning phantom: his restless dry
mouth wandering edges for answers. Skin
only finding Epsom, abandoned lots.
Lost reels repeating our one scene: some smoke
endless cigarettes while we drive along
Ana Island. Red sun up at the stroke
of Five, red light, whispered lips so narrow.

by Ryan Stone

Halfway up the Hangman’s Hill
or maybe halfway down,
a broken house with empty eyes
stares blankly over town.

Dark deeds of old have taken toll
and none dare visit now
‘cept she and I, beneath a sky
solemn as her vow.

Larunda’s daughter, flaxen haired,
and Mercury’s wild boy
lie close as roman candles dip
and shadows writhe with joy.

Intertwined in sweet repose,
two hearts beat a single drum.
In darkened room, by reaping moon
a spark flicks its frenzied tongue.

by Sheikha A.

by JP Davies

by Miles T. Ranter

Curious Curie, you played
with atoms as unstable
as a shaky surgeon, elements
as bad as Cain to Abel.

The isotopes you isolated
glowed like a warning label,
harming you even as they joined
the periodic table.

And yet, your inspiration’s led
to novel therapies
and may fulfill your wish and bring
all cancers to their knees.

Ra-di-o-ac-tiv-i-ty—
the word cries, “Danger! Danger!”
But now the very sun itself
no longer is a stranger.

by rickjstassi

What is life, afterall?
The waning time from summer to fall.
Winter's sting shall take its toll,
In springtime thus a reborn soul.
Reborn on ground or there above,
For certain born in holy love.
Afterall, earth run its course,
But heaven shall ever shun remorse.
Gone too soon and hearts asunder
gives rise to doubts of heaven's wonder.
But persevere and shed your tears,
God lovingly casts off our fears.

197th Weekly Poetry Contest