This week’s selection.

5957.
The clang of shovel on rock
The bell struck
it Rings only once
Good-bye, it says. I hear it. Good-bye.

5958.
She discarded the price tag
picking it off with her plastic fingernails.
I did not feel I could intervene.

5959.
lemons
deafening yellow
fragrant acidity
a sparkle curled inside a rind

5960.
dishrags emerge
from the suds
wrung out from a hard day’s work
 
5961.
reputations
now so gracelessly extinct
lie in cracked ruins in the cemetery
scattered through the unmown grass

5962.
that moment in the warm kitchen
of bright unfettered hopes
eager that my efforts might please

5963.
in the living room so long ago a little girl
curled up asleep on the prickly red carpet
guarded by the heavy legs of the piano

5964.
Did I hear a faint echo
as I stood among the gravestones
in the manicured cemetery?

5965.
the heartbreaker continued in his ways
spackling the afterlife with
hard gravestone kisses

 
5966.
disappointed hearts retreating
a single word had broken the news:
the tickets are all sold out

5967.
The train stood in the station at midnight
full of people
knowing where but not always knowing why
they were going

5968.
I remember a lot of things about that time
but mostly trees
and feeling alone

5969.
the cloud overeats
the sky disappears
what’s left is a moon with a bite taken out of it

5970.
Eight years old
standing there laughing.
At me. Of course. My cat.

 
5971.
test booklet and pencil
a good view to the left and to the right
Yes, I’m ready for the exam now

5972.
what loud voices
even in winter in snow a foot deep
the dreaming daffodil bulbs have

5973.
You’re stupid stupid stupid
sang the valentines in their envelopes
trusting Cupid Cupid Cupid

5974.
Her eyes gleamed like polished acorns
elated at successfully evading a squirrel.
Possibly she is overconfident.

5975.
a tissue from the box
nothing to offer but anonymous comfort
but that was enough

 
5976.
a spin and a panic and making other plans
the vehicle shies away
U-turn and gone in a hurry

5977.
the ruined molecule
the corrosive stars
the discolored luminescent clouds
Now even fate has gone numb

5978.
Answer in a short paragraph. Discuss fully.
Are you anonymous or synonymous?
Polynomial or abdominal?
Molecular or follicular?

5979.
outside the window
winter plods past
methodical and petulant