Best Flotillas Poems

[starboard port]

the ocean—an onyx plate predawn—
somnambulant ships preen with a swag of
warning lights

massive hulls: cargo ships, flotillas, tankers,
passenger liners loll; red lights buss
the somber slate...

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This Regency Dandy flying across the river,
                  ...

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The Spanish had armadas;
the Americas, flotillas.
The Amazon has capybara;
the Andes has chinchillas.
Kentucky has its sassafras;
Madagascar has vanilla.
Napoleon lost at Waterloo;
Frazier, in Manila.
Will a person tell...

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Rejection Slips 2

The Shape of Mourning
by Michael R. Burch
 
The shape of mourning
is an oiled creel
shining with unuse,
 
the bolt of cold steel
on a locker
shielding...

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Lozenge
by Michael R. Burch

When I was closest to love, it did not seem
real at all, but a thing of such tenuous sweetness
it might dissolve in...

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Pointedly poignant points portend pointillism.
Pontiffs pontificate pointless pointers ponderously.
Pompous poems populate Pompei pottery potently.
Porous *********** portrays Portuguese porta potties.
Poppies pop Popeye’s popular popcorn.
Populist populism pots...

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Prose Poems II
by Michael R. Burch

These are prose poems (is that an oxymoron?) and experimental poems...



briefling
by Michael R. Burch

manishatched, hopsintotheMix, cavorts, hassex (quick!, spawnanewBrood!); then,...

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A thunderstorm passed over, 
gun turrets flash.
gray hulls rumble and roll
above tumultuous clouds.

Evening commences to weep -
an aftermath,
a damp emotive capsizing
that barely touches upturned faces
yet...

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Tonight the act of naming fell through the floor.
We speak permeable solids inflect’d by light.
Things move indistinctly: a pine palette floats
momentarily from semi truck’s bed,...

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Iceberg

Emanating from below the surface
iceberg flotillas in frozen zone--
every shaft a shimmering face,
immense, sharp and wind-blown.
Obelisk splits arctic horizon--icy bone.

Note:  This form, called the...

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In passing, the waters cleave the landscape heart,
Taking on their travel, in their course, parts of the land;
In passing, we hikers in that current,
Return to...

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The Evolution of Love
by Michael R. Burch

Love among the infinitesimal
flotillas of amoebas is a dance
of transient appendages, wild sails
that gather in warm brine and then...

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A thunderstorm passed over, 
gun turrets flash.
gray hulls rumble and roll
above tumultuous clouds.

Evening commences to weep -
an aftermath,
a damp emotive capsizing
that barely touches upturned faces
yet...

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When anarchy consumes a barren soul,
the hatred overwhelms the beating heart.
It sickens minds and steals the body whole  
then rips the cloth of empathy...

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This woodland stream could be a small English river,
it dibbles and dabbles, it meanders, and has the air
of an old water way, one that never...

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