Registration photo of John Warren McCauley for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Morning Walk

The dew had fallen upon the leaves
While walking along the lake,
The peace and tranquility
With God’s creatures now awake.

The geese enjoyed a morning swim
While the squirrels were out to play,
What a very peaceful way 
To begin a brand-new day.

The mother doe with her young fawns
Were feeding on the grass,
Ducks in flight and the groundhog ran
As I began to pass.

The chipmunks in search of food,
The sly ole fox in sight,
This work of Mother Nature
Was certainly a delight.

The morning sun upon the trees
In this heaven upon the earth,
A morning walk to refresh my soul
Was like a new rebirth,

Category
Poem

everything here is cement

i understand the pleasure of symmetry, but 
right now, i’m not one for walls,

ready to bloom unpredictably
blade of grass the mower missed
patch of clover waving at sun
dandelion hope in white and yellow–
thrive and nourish, thrive and nourish.

Registration photo of Ariana Alvarado for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Ode to my emotional support Buc-ee’s blanket

Bought 8 hours into the drive home,
somewhere between Atlanta
and Chatanooga, pinnacle
of American capitalism.
 
Fresh with the smell of grief 
and orange cat fur, I wrap it
around my legs during online
therapy and two hour phone calls,
 
when we both knew this was a bad idea,
and we both can’t escape our regret.
 
I laugh at the childish memories—
the text from outside the gas pumps,
 
proclaiming I had made it to the promised 
land, best 30 dollars I’ve ever spent,
overstuffed into dad old Nike travel
backpack from 2018 I borrowed next to
 
a box of crumbed-up granola bars and
a paperback bible, the look of disapproval
when I return and show my purchases to
my parents, now laying on my bedroom floor,
 
as if it always belonged there.
Registration photo of carolyn Pennington for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Trial

He 
JERKED 
Off his leather belt, 
With buckle end,
He 
BEAT
his inocent 
teenage daughter
ACROSS
her naked thighs—

Strike
Strike–Strike-
Strike–Strike–Strike
Strike-Strike-Strike-Strike
STRIKESTRIKESTRIKESTRIKESTRIKE
STRIKESRRIKESTRIKESTRIKESTRIKE
Strike-Strike-Strike-Strike
Strike–Strike-Strike
Strike–Strike
Strike……

As if 
She were 
a convicted 
Salem witch. 

Registration photo of Nancy Jentsch for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

American Sentence

Mondays I tend houseplants; my spirit is watered too, my soul coddled.

Registration photo of Marta Dorton for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

10

In years past
and today
I work to recall
the reason that six/ten
stirs memory
some long ago event
maybe from my former life
I cannot place the date
nor locate
the specific site
stashed deep
within
tissue folds

Registration photo of Katie Hassall for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Whisked away

I was whisked away
earlier today

To a foreign land
I consider a friend

A place I visited in my youth
and it became part of my truth

I didn’t need to leave my home
to let my mind and spirit roam

Le beau monde de la langue francais
was available without chase

At the click of my mouse
another world entered my house

As I listened to a familiar story
in a less familiar glory

Finding ways to expand my mind
is a gift that is worth the effort to find

Registration photo of Arwen for the LexPoMo 2024 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Oh,

what do you do with a preening bird
that comes and goes at will?
what do you do with a trilling bird
that never will keep still?
what do you do with a mockingbird
that won’t leave you alone?
and what do you do with the bird of fire
inside the cage of bone?

Category
Poem

GTE Zen

Wise Telcom Master

“Trouble is leaving here good”

The mind cannot grasp

Category
Poem

Distrust

Just off AP readings.
They leave me with

so little
how one

must earn a living
however devoid

of meaning. Today I return to YouTube
hear tenors sing arias

I could never sing
labelled early

a soprano
but without the talent.

So I live vicariously
within yours,

a singer without a voice
a writer without a song.