Best Flatware Poems

Mid-April evening, overlooking Clear Lake
at Chelsea’s Wine Bar, a party of one:

Sipping white zinfandel, I feel the chill
of my half-empty glass while fancy-free

flatware clatters impassive pageantry.
A moment.  An hour.  Another, until,

on the wooden veranda, I see you take
a familiar draw from your lipstick...

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It was the best of tines; it was the worst of tines.
    It lay, distraught, in silence on the road.
He came around the curve, saw it too late to swerve;
    the puncture caused his front tire to explode.
A silver-plated...

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Snapshots
by Michael R. Burch

Here I scrawl extravagant rainbows.
And there you go, skipping your way to school.
And here we are, drifting apart
like untethered balloons.

Here I am, creating "art,"
chanting in shadows,
pale as the crinoline moon,
ignoring your face.

There you go,
in diaphanous lace,
making another man’s heart swoon.
Suddenly, unthinkably, here...

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Sonnets XLII-LI

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

Moonbeams on water?
the reflected light
of a halcyon star
now drowning in night...
So your memories are.

Footprints on beaches
now flooding with water;
the small, broken ribcage
of some primitive slaughter...
So near, yet so far.



A Surfeit of Light
by Michael R. Burch

There was always a surfeit of light...

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Perchance yar juiced a young man or woman 
maybe born, bread and raised in the city that never sleeps
and as a loyal son or daughter take a tram 
to enjoy a tasty repast with widowed momma,
cuz eve since da papa passed away....
a futile attempt made...

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Fork git about spooner hiz ham

And join (singing the words 
in the next paragraph) whether alone
in a traffic jam
basting, cooking, then eating a lamb
prepared by thee missus
a superb culinary madam.

“A Ram Sam Sam” Lyrics
A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam
Guli guli guli guli guli...

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My mother's dishes are as delicate as she,
Tiny pink rose bouquets and silver rims.
Once I used them with her lace tablecloth,
For Thanksgiving and Christmas back then.

Then came the day of casual living,
She had given me a set of gold flatware,
So I set a pretty table...

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Starlight and Moonlight II

These are poems about starlight and moonlight, moons and stars, dreams and visions, illuminations and intimations …




Deliver Us...
by Michael R. Burch 

for my mother, Christine Ena Burch

The night is dark and scary—
under your bed, or upon it.

That blazing light might be a...

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Basic black, they chatter like 
fiancees choosing flatware, 
obits their compulsion, 
scanning through the 
fine print for fatalities today. 
"Albert Johnson, such 
a young one, taken by his 

Maker, leaving children, 
such a shame!" A hunger for 
the details drives these gannets 
to their prey....

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LOVE POEMS IV by Michael R. Burch

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch: original poems and translations about love, passion, desire, lust, sex, dating, romance, relationships and marriage. 



She Was Very Strange, and Beautiful
by Michael R. Burch

She was very strange, and beautiful,
like a violet...

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We're getting married and you say you wanna wear white 
I tell you, your chance of doing so ended last night 
I punch you in the arm and say now you can wear black and blue 
You kick me between the legs and say now...

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speculative fictional account
courtesy yours truly interpretation
impossible mission to surmount
tooling topographic factors,
solving quadratic equations, 
rubik's cube generally tantamount.

Perchance yar juiced
a young man or woman
Aladdin on cusp of securing lass
maybe born, bread and raised
in the city that never sleeps
and as loyal returning native son
or daughter taking a...

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Basic black, they chatter like
fiancees choosing flatware,
obits their compulsion, 
scanning through the
fineprint for fatalities today. 
"Albert Johnson, such
a young one, taken by his

Maker, leaving children,
such a shame!" A hunger for
the details drives these gannets
to their prey. They're not too far
behind, and that's the reason
for their...

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A Surfeit of Light
by Michael R. Burch

There was always a surfeit of light in your presence.
You stood distinctly apart, not of the humdrum world—
a chariot of gold in a procession of plywood.

We were all pioneers of the modern expedient race,
raising the ante: Home Depot to...

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Basic black, they chatter like 
fiancees choosing flatware, 
obits their compulsion, 
scanning through the 
fine print for fatalities today. 
"Albert Johnson, such 
a young one, taken by his 

Maker, leaving children, 
such a shame!" A hunger for 
the details drives these gannets 
to their prey....

Continue reading...