Registration photo of Samuel Collins Hicks for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

Song of Solomon 7:7-9

Your stature is like a palm tree,
and your breasts are like its clusters.
I said, “I will climb the palm tree,
I will take hold of its fruit stalks.”
            Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine.
            And the fragrance of your breath like apples,
            and your mouth like the best wine…

I bought thighs so I could sauté them
(“browning” is for beef, and when it comes to our kind of cooking,
the French do it better)
Sauté them then, the thighs, before pulling them apart with my fingers
and ripping them to pieces perfect for our mouths

The store-bought tikka masala sauce had straightforward instructions with,
despite the “Indian Inspiration” on the label, not much spice.
So I seasoned the thighs, before tossing them, wet and sticky and raw
into the Valentine’s Day night heat of the searing pan.
Nothing too erotic, cough cough, I mean exotic
just some onion and garlic powder
and white pepper for color.

But I keep the cayenne to the side, you prefer your masala sweet;
your tongue — though adventurous, can’t always stand the heat… 

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

Blush Belly

lucky morning love,
my angel a coffee cloud, lingering,
like the fever that melts blue all over.
it almost marbles me.
picture desire, a blush belly.

 

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

Tipping the Scale

You ask me to forgive,
take you back.

Well, let’s see —
    I forgave unfaithfulness
    took you back twice
    tolerated drunkenness
    your failure to keep a job.

But this last time
you crossed a line.

You stole from me —
    Joplin’s Pearl
Bill Evans’ Waltz for Debby
    
Coltrane’s Blue Train.

Forgive you?    Yes.
Take you back?    Never in a million years.

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

Pirotechnia

Hans Glaser, Celestial Phenomenon Over Nuremberg, April 14th, 1561
Hans Glaser, Celestial Phenomenon Over Nuremberg, April 14th, 1561

It can be hard to tell
Explosions in the sky
from the woes of worried minds
Maybe it’s just as well
when two worlds interpenetrate
celestial cielings conflagrate
sowing a presence of fire below
that some fear to see
Maybe it’s just as well
Maybe

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

Not A Dry Heat

I’m melting
It’s so hot
My skin is moist
Sticky
Salty

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

Appalachian (ii)

Papa, lain plain in a clinic—
a chill pall, a china hall.
Nail a chin, chap a lip, pin a hip.
Call Canaan: nil. Call alpha: nil.
I call & call— Nana, nah; Hannah, nah.
I clinch all I can clinch:
a chill chin, a chain.
Chap-lain, I inch in:
chain in chaplain, plain in chaplain,
pain in chaplain, lain in chaplain.
Pinch chai in a phial,
pinch a lilac in a chill pan.
All I can call clan:
a hill, a chain, a call.
I ail & inch & I can.
Registration photo of H.P. Shaw for the LexPoMo 2026 Writing Challenge.
Category
Poem

A series of haiku for three baby raccoons

your mother is gone
hit by a car and left dead
off the highway side

i’m sorry small ones
she was there and now she’s not
and now you’re alone

the world can be such
a cruel, cruel place for
the young and the scared

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

in this Curious dark

timbers strain upward
hewn days before
outside in the light
of mother sun
skin chopped away
xylem and phloem
transformed – no longer
a food conveyor, or
shelter bringer, or
fire starter, but still
their fibrous groan
down black tunnels
a natural protector
in this mine
this curious dark

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

The Caterpillar

tickles on my hands
my heart a broken cocoon
hanging from the porch

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

Thoughts on an Afternoon Drive

A man sits on the highway guardrails, his legs swinging
as he stares toward the skyline.  I understand the hypnosis
of a view.  Licking my fingers is a two-pound black
cat.  He nestles while the brown tabby draws blood, still unfamiliar 
with the sharpness of his claws and the softness
of human skin.  This city is full of paint:
Greek columns and spitting fountains, a lizard with a crown, 
a pie man feeding a T. Rex a slice.
The two kittens snooze in a crate beside me, paws intertwined.
Isn’t it always trying to rain?