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

ACE up my sleeve

Friend’s husband, Dennis, asks, “Have you thought about getting married again?” My eyeballs involuntarily roll heavenward, then flash him a piercing side eye. “I guess that’s a no.” I agree. “Don’t ya get lonely?” “With two goldens and a chocolate Labrador? Being solitary doesn’t bother me; I treasure my alone-ness. No one tells me when to eat, sleep, go anywhere, and all the other stuff.” Dennis, is a direct, straight forward guy, so “other stuff” escapes him. (He and Cindy match perfectly.) “Dennis,” I say, “I’m a narcissist magnet. I dump nice guys and opt for assholes.” He lifts his battered blue ballcap to scratch his gray head.

I do not tell him how when younger other stuff meant survival, how my skin crawls at cultural demand for intimacy, how what was once a thread of resistance evolved into hawser. I do not say how storms rattled two marriages with deluge, lightning, slamming thunder, even tornadoes. I do not tell him how pairing left me a smashed, tinderbox house cast across a blood-soaked ground. I do not tell Dennis about three dead dogs and a horse. I do not tell him how I became wadded up poetry, stomped on, and tossed into a woodstove. I do not elaborate on how other stuff scrambled my battered brain. I cannot speak unspeakable words that made my ears ring. I do not tell him women don’t interest me either. I don’t share my simple opinion — what other people do in their bedrooms isn’t my business, but what happens in mine is. I do not tell this gentle person standing beside me how boundaries had to become cinder blocks.

I’d never heard of “ace” until I was old. Dennis wouldn’t understand.

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

American Sentence LXXXIII

The poet burns stories not hers to write, save for one scrap of paper.

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

Gardens

Jo Pye and sunflowers,
Milkweed and straw flowers
buzzing with honey and 
bumblebees, nectar sipping
among yellow, deep pink
and brilliant orange, all framed 
in differing hues of green. 
Mint and lemon thyme,
Basil and rosemary, landing
Pads for butterflies and ladybugs,
stopping by for a sip.

6/29/25
KW

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

Blind Jacob’s Ladder Makers

I once stayed up all night 

making three Jacob’s Ladders
out of 24 3″×3″ canvases. 
They fit well inside an old wine box
I might have gotten at an antique store
And they were all connected to a handle,
so that when you turn the handle 
you turn all the ladders at once
 and this changes the face of the painting
with that lovely flip flip cascade of sound. 
There are two paintings, one on each side. 
A self portrait, an array of red and blue color in the hair,
which from a distance appears dark brown. 
The eyes are some of my favorites
in a portrait. Accurately portrayed a light golden
as my eyes look in the sun.
The other, a painting of the moon rising
behind my old apartment building on Second St.
With lots of pinks and blues. 
I had a Jacob to help keep me going, when I felt myself losing hope.
And frankly to make any sense of the challenge,
We called ourselves the blind Jacob’s Ladder Makers,
I think because we were both doing something
we didn’t know how to do and weren’t taught.
We just looked at a Jacob’s Ladder to figure it out.
There is only one “true” face at a time 
to the painting, 
for on the backside you will see the painting shuffled up and upside down. As each row bends backward during it’s waterfall effect.
Currently the side facing my room is the backside of my face. 
The side that would ordinarily face the wall. 
Upside down and shuffled
It feels like a fitting self portrait 
Category
Poem

The Subjunctive

Some writers remark
that English’s limping subjunctive
fails to capture the full range
of magic, emotion, and possibilities
for what might exist 
even within our own minds.
Yet these language experts forget
the crucial principle our tongues extend
as we grind down difficulties 
in one domain
new features sprout like fungus
in some other field. 
This mutative property not only allows
but also nearly guarantees
an equality across languages
our own societies are too young
to recognize on their own.
Even though languages may lack,
from time to time,
a word for a specific concept,
this absence in no way reflects
a dearth of description,
and now that grammar
that sounded so painful in school
receives a chance to remind us
how features become fundaments to thought.
So, writers, please remember:
this power comes inherent
in every language we use,
so we should allow others to judge us instead
on how creatively we use the linguistic tools we have.
If I were more sadistic in the work I do with others,
I might require more subjunctive
in order to see a world more speckled by doubt and openness. 
But English has more than enough other ways
to welcome an influx of uncertainty 
in our everyday speech,
so I will clutch my subjunctive
close to my chest
and only use it sparingly
as if someone else were to try to steal it.

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

Seeking Joy through Memories (and the aftermath of writing about Joe)  

I went to bed and cried that night, after writing
about my friend, “Joe, the Hungarian;” our meeting
and parting, and reflected on what it meant to lose
track of a friend, though it was only blip on the screen
then; why the tears now? Why did it effect me so?  

I thought about the losses wrenched away; at
what age did I begin to count them? The things
I would have wanted to keep, if I had been given
a choice; but what of these memories that I wish
were gone, yet I wear them and they chafe like a burr.  

One set adored, the other abhorred. Just what
is it about good memories that make them melt
into the woodwork of the mind and go unseen
for many years then suddenly resurface years later,
and then weep with the gladness of remembering?  

And, why is it that I keep bad memories so close,
and let good ones fade away? Could it be the good ones
are finished just like they are; they don’t need fixing
and are released, but the mean, haunting ones are kept
close,hoping to give each a new ending.  

I think it had probably been 20 years since the last time
I’d thought of the letters from my Hungarian friend.
Yet daily, it seemed, some kind of bitter loss came to mind.
I’d tried ceremonies to release and let go, though some
were spur-of-the-moment.  

So then why do I still have so many bitter nuggets
rattling around in my memory bucket that I try to
pretend are not there? Why can’t I just dump them
out or maybe reframe or replace them with a softer,
lovelier memories for me to carry around instead?

Is it because great memories are near perfect,
making them easy to not think about, but
bad memories get swept under the rug in hopes
that someday, we’ll give them a new outcome.

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

Cowgirl

A saddle back heart
Reigns loose, head back
Laughter only wind can hear.

Registration photo of S.L.Bradley for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

take a chance

This time is different 
she is sure
she is not the same anymore

there is something that draws her in
will he be a friend or lover
time will tell
it doesn’t have to be one or the other 
maybe both that’s ok
you need to take a chance 
that is the only way you will see.

it requires a leap of faith
starting over in a different place
life holds no guarantees

freedom is the choice you made
 
there it is again in his voice
a natural sincerity is what she hears
she is worth it , but will he know
 
maybe if they are brave and take a chance 
life is short 
why not?

let’s take a chance 

Registration photo of Rosemarie Wurth-Grice for the LexPoMo 2025 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

The Itch

It’s nearly three in the morning,
and I’m crawling around in my head –
my chiggered thoughts keep itching.
AlI I can do is scratch out these words.

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

You Can’t Handfeed Empathy

She walked to the end of the pier to

Look below at all that had transpired 
Between t h    .    e m
It had been many years of this conversation 
Walking towards a conclusion with hesitation 
Looking at a response of implied invalidation
As she solemnly stared at the murky water
Considering calmly what she would slaughter 
It felt as if she had cut off her hand and
Unknowingly robbed herself of grasp
Still, she performed her soliloquy 
Disappointed by silence instead of finger snapping 
Then she Bitcoined her grievances 
And bribery failed at being attention grabbing
Finally she accepted it was her fate
As the cold, steel knife came swiftly stabbing
It was all in vain and full of pain 
So finally at the midnight hour
With wet eyes and shaky thighs
She relented to her anger
Acknowledged the danger of
Slowly letting friend became stranger
Later people would ask
Why she walked the pier that day
She would answer softly
Polite thoughts were killing
Her joy became top billing
And she was no longer willing 
To keep being the blarney stone 
If she was left behind to survive
                                                                         alone