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Registration photo of Ann Haney for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Ann Haney
Category
Poem
6/21/26

Trapped in an Aviary

We shuffled in sideways
Compact on a perch
Surrounded by Wrens chirping
This must be their Church

A Boutique Cafe
A group visit for the day
We just arrived, yet I knew
I don’t want to stay

My friends said,
(—though reading lips I cannot boast):
“you’ll Love it!—just
order Avocado Toast!”

Everyone seemed to talk all at once
Word collages fillied the air
I continued to wish
that I wasn’t there

Aviary Entrapment!
Until luncheon was done
I wrote poems in my head
for survival and fun

Registration photo of Madison Miller for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Madison Miller
Category
Poem
6/21/26

I Would Have Written

a Father’s Day ode
but all that comes out is grief
I snooze the alarm

Kerfoot
Category
Poem
6/21/26

Mr. Moon Rock

The way everyone is stressed 
has me in reflection.
I made good choices, 
so I avoid depression-
but it creeps in
when I see others cry
on this twisted planet
from my moon rock in the sky. 

Everyday I blast-off
and hover around;
why are so many people feeling down? 
Is it the world we live in, 
or is it just how they feel in their skin? 
In a world full of woes, 
I’d rather be on my UFO. 

Registration photo of Jess Roat for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Jess Roat
Category
Poem
6/21/26

Morning Dove #2

Morning Dove greets us
A song of peace among us
The gifts of Nature
Registration photo of Michele for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Michele
Category
Poem
1
6/21/26

Cheers to Whimsy

I have a small grandson,
Quinn.
He serves ice cream
from the crisp, clean air.
He knows not the day,
the forecast, or the year.
I pray his at-play, at-peace
lasts a good long while—
that he remembers
this ease
when today’s formal
education creeps
in to teach,
to introduce him
to inhumanity.

Registration photo of Evelyn Paige for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Evelyn Paige
Category
Poem
6/21/26

Pariah

I fell hard for a boy once
against better judgement
I trusted
and I folded myself into halves
scoring the crease each time
I would ask for something
spit back in my face
each time
Going to bed too early
Him pulling on my shirt when I said no

I suppose to the other girls
I’m a flirt
and I get the good ones 
and something about me 
turns them evil

Because that good guy loved me
or liked me
or wanted to kiss me
I failed the sacred grace
of giving into the blessing.

I was the soulless one
cracking sweethearts
with my mortal attention.

I was the tease,
the prude,
and the whore.

I made them crumple
like good men do
I made them shatter
like good men do
when faced with a witch like me.

Why not follow suit, girls?
When the good man won’t pick you.

I’m the one manipulating.
I’m the evil root.

I made his heart sore.
I played with his affection.

I’m sorry, boys.
I am.

It is the men,
I can’t forgive.

Registration photo of Pauletta Hansel for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Pauletta Hansel
Category
Poem
2
6/21/26

For a Friend Who Committed Suicide

Are we humans the only animals who end our lives
before it’s time to go? Squirrels die from their own
stupidity, but even they get help from the pavement
we pour to roar our cars along what used to be their
homes. And our house cats are fat and lazy only
because they are ours. But humans, we say enough
with this life. I’ll have no more flutter and flurry
of wings at the neighbor’s feeder to remind me I
am alone. I remember despair. I remember sitting
on another porch than this one, no beloved upstairs
slumbering in the cool dark of our shuttered room,
believing the world would not miss me, nor me this
world. I did not want to live but, too, I did not want
to die, just to sleep for a long lovely while until I had
courage to look around and find a reason to stay.
I don’t recall what happened next, the when or why.
Was it like waking from a faint, the swirling in my head
spilling out onto the cold tile floor until I touched again
the edges of the world that held me, hard and fixed but
mine? I went on. I go on. It is what we do, we creatures
with our blood and organs, bone and skin that touches
every grand and grievous piece of all which is not us,
but which we are a part of. This life mysteriously ours.
What is this thing called consciousness, called soul?
Why do we sometimes, some of us, cling tenaciously
to the bodies that house it, while others fling it from us
as if we are not also matter making up this world?
My friend, I have no answers, I only know you mattered
and it matters to the world that you are gone.

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TiltedOne
Category
Poem
6/21/26

RELAX

Reading a book
Eating grapes
Lounging at pool
Atmospheric treasure
Xanadu

Registration photo of Leah Tenney for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Leah Tenney
Category
Poem
6/21/26

father’s day

i am eldest daughter
who wished to be first-born son
so i could carry some of the load
my sonless father
could not lay down

i once watched him 
carry a refrigerator up a flight of stairs
alone
I’M FINE.
he assured

he wasn’t

Registration photo of Ash for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Ash
Category
Poem
6/21/26

Solstice

It’s the summer solstice and I run free with my bare feet,
the summer glow on my skin shimmers in the sunlight,
drops of sweat form on the bridge of my nose.

I feel the light surrounding me.
Weaving through every pore, activating energy within.

I’m wearing my favorite skirt—
the one with slits up both sides,
light, breezy, cozy, divine.

I walk to the garden and let out a sigh.
Just looking around me gets me high:
the tall trees, green grass, the birds and the butterflies.

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