This week’s selection.

5288.
the old smooth snowman
slumped in the side yard
without a regret

5289.
Half of the fifteen selected were selected.
The cow towers over the picnic basket.
A surplus of struggle strains the vocal cords.
All of these are, have been, or will be true.

5290.
this hypothesis –
like a python with a bulging belly –
will break down the problem nicely

 
5291.
Opposite the preening bargain
stood the confident outright steal.
Full price sat in the back row, fighting tears.

5292.
So this morning
I face my occasional partner the steam iron
we hiss in unison and get to work

5293.
This poem is a gray lumpy gruel for the soul,
wrote the editor in the introduction,
thinking, I wish I had written it

5294.
The lady in this play chatters on and on.
A three-act monologue performed seated.
Audience sympathy is always with the sofa.

5295.
Chez papacy
Bless you
is said a lot more often than just when people sneeze

 
5296.
my red hot iron and I – is that my smile
I see reflected in its polished sole plate
or – its own devilish grin it glimpses mirrored
in my soul?

5297.
The fireworks waver in the sky
suddenly realizing they suffer from
fear of heights and of falling

5298.
In Your Face You Blabbermouth
or Corpse on a Carb Counting Cruise?
You said to do it by the book, but which one did
you mean?

5299.
What he offered me was
not much of a bribe –
more like a sarcastic impulse

5300.
the crossword puzzle
budgets the boredom of the solver
and doles out frustration accordingly

 
5301.
I need a few minutes alone
with the assumptions
this pricy luggage makes

5302.
This book is so bad
its paragraphs are fleeing by the pages
asking for asylum in any nearby printed matter
I even see one sentence pleading with a cereal box

5303.
sucking on a sweet honey cough drop
he forged all the signatures
flipped the cult to his control
added a dental plan for good measure

5304.
how will the holiday proceed?
the plumbing in the downstairs powder room
holds the key to that question

5305.
the irritating applicant
fulminates. the potential boss
ruminates. the resume resonates
against the sides of the metal trash can.