April 2026

Winners

My Father Explains NothingMy father never says: / “I miss your mother.” / Instead he asks

#1

77

The Shopping Cart With One Broken WheelAt the self-checkout / the machine asks twice / if I have stolen anything

#2

67

Pizza & death are always lateThe sun sets / over the tiger cages / of our childhood.

#3

55

The Water That Refused the FlowerIn a field They set her down / and named her, softly: Flower. / They wanted Form to gather there,

@RastislavKnezi64

#4

39

TwinWe will sit / On a dead wood fence / Air so hot and penetrating

#5

33

Other poems

The new couple keep their garden tidy.The old guy in the house behind ours, cared well for his wife and neglected their garden. / Honeysuckle twisted in hedgerows. Sweet passion vine weighed down fence wire. / Leaves rotted. Roses clambered, rangy and wild, through tall blades and fingerprint flowers.

31

Empathy's deadLast week I read / A sign that said / "Empathy's dead"

@PeterGerstenmaier15

17

Little MissLittle Miss Undefined, / Staring at her closet, / Trying on moods like sweaters

@beepboopbop42021

16

I Love You.If I could write / truly write / put pen to paper and spill my soul

15

StillMy heart still jumps / Every time I see you. / I wish it wouldn’t.

14

Beauty and Her Broken Things|•| / *Finally falling* / *very deep down asleep*

@Carlo-C-Gomez27

14

mutt.When you saw me out in the pasture / covered in ticks and mange / folded me into your linen shirt

13

Inside the same story.Sometimes the past / returns quietly, / like footsteps in an empty hallway,

13

Culpability (for those little girls in Iran. I am sorry).I wonder where they wrote my name / and whether it was engraved / or casually noted in pen.

13

I Thought You Should KnowBecause your life is short / I thought you should know / about lawn bowling and polite clapping

13

Pretty GoodSomewhere out in the world right now / A woman is opening the door / Getting bad news as she holds her children

12

Brainsnapmy mother throws / the wet headed mop at him, / expecting him, nimble and atheletic

11

what sticks in her throatYellow rice maze spans white plates / after Sunday dinner my mother made. / Dad, Gee, and I just ate.

10

be a manBe a man. / **** it up. / That’s what they tell you

8

A Doorway Made of LightThe first breath as you wake, / light slipping in as your eyes open, / the quiet promise of a new day

8

Beginning to lastLike a fallen petal / The thoughts distraught, words unseen / When did the flower bloom

@sarita-aditya-verma18

7

the warmth in the palmsthe kitchen is a museum of heavy things today. / the oranges sit in the ceramic bowl, / glowing like small, stubborn suns,

7

IsolatedThe deepest struggles I face / Creep up on me on days that / I am alone.

7

Never let goBeneath an oak-tree ceiling, / sprouting their ages above us. / A cool breeze passes through,

7

To do list:1. Learn to fly / 2. Fly away / I keep it folded in my pocket

@WiltedEverly36

7

Haiku - weeping cherry blossom treenear the weeping / cherry blossom tree - / a child's laughter

6

I ate a bananaThe other week, I ate a banana at school. / I peeled it from the top, like always. / Someone once told me monkeys peel them from the bottom, but I don’t really believe that.

6

The Woman I Buried In MarbleWhen you died by your hand / I carried you into the mountains of my mind / and buried you there in marble.

6

I hurt myself today.A skinned knee, a bruised elbow. / I hurt myself today. / A paper cut, frostbite from the snow.

@JackiePilled-13

6

Red LightA red light, / and some rain, / add traffic,

6

Schrodinger's NosferatuIf I don’t look into the mirror, / I both do and do not have a reflection. / Thusly,

6

larkspurborn with the blood of ajax / a curse to want heroism / when it's all poison

@saint-sabeer-amin25

6

fumingin thick wefts like steam / anger pulls off of you; / you stand stiff, all wet

6

Im sorry DadNo Dad, / I don’t want another kitten. Thank you though. / No Dad,

5

Girl crushit is inevitable / that a gay girl / should crush

5

Apology to an Old FriendI swore I'd keep in touch with you— / I crossed my heart and hoped to die. / I meant it, so it was no lie,

5

ToothbrushToday I used your toothbrush. / I had already packed mine away for the trip, / and you had forgotten yours here.

@TacitusKilgore17

5

burn the witchwhen witch hunting was common practice / anything and everything became a sign / smart?

@ShatteredSculpture36

4

je t'aimeto v.r. / i loved you once / when i met you in the back of science

4

WindWind, / take me away / to a far away place

@EtherealWoman47

4

static between stations: Unbroken. (20)he looks at the calendar like a graveyard of "should have beens," / convinced that the static has rewritten his code, / that the voices have scraped out his center

@the_softest_thing68

4

Fields of Burnt SugarI'm nine, standing on a beryl hill / under a humid dusk slab - / my sister picking wheat anthers

4

OceanYou crossed it / without a word of complaint / for me.

@Agnes-de-Lodz9

4

doeyour soft doe eyes didn't see me in time / i came through like a meteor / burned right through your vulnerable

4

A Daughters FableOne day I grew scales. / My father grew feathers. / In our living room,

@Kiki-Dresden17

4

play like a weaponMozart — / played music like a weapon, / with devastating effectiveness.

3

FakeLakeside, the water is calm / Over my head, it becomes dangerous as a bomb / Vindictive, the ocean of my fears

@BleedingHearts12

3

ended

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