Posts for June 23, 2026 (page 8)

Registration photo of Joe Anthony for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Good Teeth

The three of you are so
full of life in the photo,
smiling widely. Such good teeth.

“Are you taking care of your teeth? ” my
father, your granddad, might ask
out of nowhere, his hand paused
mid-bourbon on the way to his mouth.

“Absolutely,” I’d tell him. Here’s
more evidence of how good a dad I was.

“Look at those smiles.”

I know photos lie, especially
this kind, a
posed portrait,
but you all seem so happy.
Excited to show the world
how happy you are.

Photos can sometimes
tell the truth, too.

And you are smiling so widely.

Were you hiding?
At least one of
you were.

I know that now.

Did I know that then?


Category
Poem

slow fast

when she fasts

everything she does seems to involve water

touching water activates

aquaporins

real things

in the body

magical chemicals

that trigger the appetite to be around water

like sex triggers

chemical appetite

for more sex

 

she stays away

from water\tapes her mouth

Save The Saliva

but it hunts her down

finds a way

like grand canyon cutting rock

the flat wagon tire needs testing

…in a bathtub

she transplants weeds

to grow protected

in a bucket

…and waters them

because there’s no such thing as weeds

just poorly located stuffs

then her hands are dirty

because dirt

…and so they need rinsing

sitting with tv

means drinking water

or supplements

or sol

two flies up the nose

mean a rinse would be nice

and a bath

a bath

is always

always

nice

 

but not as nice as

feeling better

sucking out the body’s inflammation

feeling dull

ratracing with communicable disease

from the audacity of picking up

her mail

and shaking a hand

a day ago

that someone else initiated

that never happens

so nice when a beautiful human

inside and out

takes initiative

I already feel better

she thinks

sailing from human contact

forgetting to inhale

the germkiller gas

when she gets home

 

the body is fine

this fasting life

feels most natural to her

but the heart is restless

somehow sleep comes poorly

during a fast

lots of bioreasons

but the days get long

long and numb

as unpleasant a combo as

rich and stupid

 

another fly comes by

daring to enjoy an open window

she thinks

as she watches pictures of gardeners

now harvestng

okra purple corn melon tomatoes

when hers stay quiet

considering their options

only the sunchokes are all in

as they slurp up water from the air

and the flies

look for water

here in the fasting house


Registration photo of Lincoln Oliphant for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

If I were God

I’d have left clearer instructions when I went,
ensuring none could twist and misinterpret my words.
Love one another, by which I mean love and accept everyone
for who they are, by which I mean let them live their own 
lives, without restricting them to follow your own beliefs.
And by everyone I mean literally everyone, not just those
who physically look like you or are geographically close.
I’ll be extra clear, don’t be racist, just treat everyone like you
would treat everyone else, which means you should treat
everyone kindly, by which…
On second thought, maybe I would get tired and quit,
giving the same vague direction—Love one another—
before going out to buy some cosmic cigarettes.


Registration photo of N. D for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Grounding

Tell the soil a secret
Then plant a flower on top
To keep it safe

Plant another beside it
Make sure to give it space
But not too much

Watch them grow tall
And taller still
Until you forget
What’s rooted below


Registration photo of E. E. Packard for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Judith Beheading Holofernes 1612-1613

(Another poem from my ekphrastic serices on Artemesia Gentileschi. I wrote this as a strike out poem, but that doesn’t work on the LexPoMo website, so it’s an erasure poem instead.)

                 Gentileschi presents a portrait of women’s power,                      asserting                                 the capacity to                            make her own decisions… 

                Gentileschi makes the servant        woman              participate in the killing.                        It adds a savage realism                                       – it would take two women to kill this brute.   

“Judith Beheading Holofernes” 
TheArtStory.org 
Artemesia Gentileschi Artworks 
Italian Baroque Artist     


Registration photo of Neofight67 for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

“Once Again”

Deep, slow rythmic breaths 
holding each inhale three total steps,
steady, the sound not unlike a metronome click by click,
not, the only soul in this familiar morning breaking dawn,
without urgency, on my behalf i soak this life in,
it’s known, comfortable pace relieves this body’s aches,
price, worth the means to this morning’s journey end.
 
In Hope, I’ve trusted repetition 
to keep mind and body sharp through reps,
tension, in my bladder feet i lift placed surefoot on cliffs,
unthinking, how could that indicate some fear it’s gone,
without observation, of the time passing i see again,
ignorance, this my choice i can learn to love for loves sake,
trade, every thought and action for companionship again,
 
Of All, my needless endeavors 
the chasing glory still takes my breath,
trembling, ears ringing lacking oxygen humid and thick,
yes, I’ve run in your draft and find it’s hard running alone,
without your, shadow to pace a soft cadence for my wind,
revelation, i’m not in orbit like a satellite of my own fate,
Agreed, compromised distance linked in both love and pain,
 
Things Will Change, eventually 
we’ve known from conception until joy wept,
certain, truth will not be denied and darkness lifts,
perhaps, years pass then memories make us again long,
without malice, toward misunderstanding by mere men,
prodigal, never occurring to be part of our current state,
Divided, unequally and to us nothing seems truly sane.

Registration photo of Jules Unsel for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

this can’t be true

or how i
stopped worrying and
learned to love the b*mb
.
i read in the wall street paper
that protestant denominations
in the nations of the west have
been shrinking shrinking up
to forty and sixty per cent
.
.
closing closing
churches and choirs
daycares and chapels
losing losing members
money and preachers
sunday school
teachers
aldermen
deacons
and clerks
(oh my)
.
.
the
faithful
distracted
disinterested
halved by division
dissolution scandal
but the churchyards
still booming booming
with generational change
.
going going are altars
and communion cups
coat racks and pews
hymnals and chairs
donation plates
clerical robes crosses
.
.
.
the roman church is booming booming
in the developing nations around
the world despite perhaps
because of its most
serious threat of
schism
since
1054
a.d.
and
at least
there
are
three
practicing shakers still left on earth

Registration photo of Mary Knight for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Haiku #7

Red gladioli
turn translucent as sun sets.
Waves curl, break on shore.

–Lakeside, Ohio  6/23/26


Registration photo of Michele for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Earth’s Garden Bed

Volunteer blooms rise high
in our beds— tangles of violets,

golds, pinks reaching sunward
as they have for centuries.

We enjoy their sweet scents, see
bees and butterflies drink, dance.

Nearby, a neighbor weeds
all out but his delicate white

shasta daisies, allowing not
a single sunflower to rise.

He calls himself a master
gardener with his sharp shears.

But when he dares broach
our shared fence to spray

poison on common soil,
we swiftly release

a cloud of dandelion seeds,
then call upon the wind. 

It picks up into a storm, fierce,
knocks him back, 

buries him in the very dust
he plows.


Registration photo of Sibila Aleksova for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

A Haircut

Outside an old bearded house,
a man trims another’s man hair.
They’ve been sitting like this forever,
dead cigarettes between their teeth.

They mull over shared griefs and women –
women who somehow belong to no one.
Time falls from them in soft gray tufts,
sliding off sagging shoulders.

A scrape, a pause – the blade set right again,
then quiet settles into the soap-thick air.
Under the lather, two foreheads gleam,
believing once more in their youth.

The rinse water runs bitter and sharp,
and darkens the dust at their feet.
So bitterness finds its way in
through a crack in a hardened heart.