Posts for June 8, 2025 (page 5)

Registration photo of Danielle Valenilla ∞ for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Specifically

not all,
but most,
and definitely some
more than others


Category
Poem

Ode to an Elm Tree

You lived long, very long,
but the Dutch sickness
got you finally,
and you were felled.
I’m sorry about that.
We had no choice in the matter.
The city made us.
I just want you
to know
that we miss you
very,
very
much.


Registration photo of Geoff White for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Privilege and Not Knowing

Coworker, 
I drive her most of
the way home.

I’m not the problem.
I could be, potential,
a threat to safety.

How far to go
before someone trusts me?
Doesn’t matter.

Over her shoulder,
extra lap around her home,
keys between knuckles.

I drive away
not knowing and who am I
to tell her different?


Category
Poem

SUNSHOWER

Give me a word for when rain
turns into stained glass. Give me
the word for how it shatters
sunlight, makes summer-filled beads. 


Registration photo of Debbie Cooper for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

It’s raining in Chicago

stuck in this fucking hotel room

14 floors up

with a yellow leather fainting couch

and

the bourbon on the counter’s

lookin’ good


Registration photo of Katelyn Donley-Weldon for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Lives Intertwined

The back and forth
patty cake
twister like game
has my insides flipped
and knotted around
one another
like the necklace you gifted me
that has itself tangled
among all of my other pieces
proving impossible to remove
and constantly tarnishing all
that crosses its path.


Registration photo of Bing for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Pair of Two Birdies

A pair of two birdies, perched up on a tree

with their black birdy eyes glued tight onto me.

Just play along now, finish up what you need. 

But never forget, the pair of two birdies watching.

 

Please mind your temper, try not to see red. 

Lower your voice, child, and lower your head. 

I know the world’s spinning, but close your eyes, count to ten.

You must paint on a smile and keep everything in.

 

The birdies test my patience, but rather than cry

I just lay in the grass and allow them to fly.

You must ignore their chirping, their shrieks, and their songs, 

for these two little birdies can’t quite tell right from wrong.

 

Such a labor of love, to raise birdies like them,

preening their wings and their hearts to better fit in,

flying by example so the birdies can learn

exactly how to handle the world at their turn.

 

The pair of two birdies have grown plenty since then.

Their wings almost 40, their minds forever at 10.

I have grown too, from once bubbling behind a mask,

to genuinely, gently answering whatever the birds ask.

 

As I now look how far, birdies and I have come, 

again my eyes dampen, but this time overcome

with love and with pride over every endeavor

made to let the pair of two birdies…

 

stay pure and sweet little birdies forever.


Category
Poem

Got No Soul

I don’t have a poet’s soul
Because I can’t feel my emotions.
I live in the moment,
never 
reflecting on the past,
looking towards the future,
searching my innermost thoughts,
listening to other opinions, 
observing the world around me.
I forget those feelings that would set me free
And hang onto the ones that bind me up. 
I also lie to myself a lot.


Registration photo of maddie mitchell for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

i’m on my way to buy a flamethrower

light these screaming bugs up in flames
sure it’ll be louder for a second,
but then i’ll have silence
maybe be able to nap a while
i’m not sure where to buy a flamethrower
let alone how to light a fire


Registration photo of Brother Buck Markowitz for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

A DIFFERENT LYMERIKU

There was a garden
With music under the trees,
You should have been there.