Best Unfastens Poems

Cyclone stars appear in the night sky 
alongside circular lights abreast an amber moon 
He quietly sits by the piano  and plays 
sending this heart of mine into a tailspin; 
Aiming straight for my glass soul 
he shatters every cruel reality and replaces it...

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Salvation of a Formalist, an Ode to Entropy
by Michael R. Burch

Entropy?
God's universal decree
That I get to be
Disorderly?
Suddenly
My erstwhile boxed-in verse is free?
Wheeeeee!



Eternal Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm that wells within? 
How can the ocean not be blue,...

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A decade in to
a new millennium,
a woman, nearing
a century on Earth,
braces herself in
a doorway of
the house,
she has lived in since birth.

Her oldest son unfastens his belt, and takes a seat at the end of her table,
where her middle son just fixed the legs of the...

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Her soul is cold and dull;
limber limbs grow numb at love's undoing.
Songbirds no longer trill
in gay abandon, sadness spoils their tune.
Winter's blast is coming
with full force, dark days of unfilled longing.

Despair, the too-sharp pang,
unfastens quick the glow of happiness,
defrocks the breast of care
and locks all...

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Her soul is cold and dull;
limber limbs grow numb at love's undoing.
Songbirds no longer trill
in gay abandon, sadness spoils their tune.
Winter's blast is coming
with full force, dark days of unfilled longing.

Despair, the too-sharp pang,
unfastens quick the glow of happiness,
defrocks the breast of care
and locks all...

Continue reading...

Vampire Poetry

Pale Though Her Eyes
by Michael R. Burch
 
Pale though her eyes,
her lips are scarlet
from drinking of blood,
this child, this harlot
 
born of the night
and her heart, of darkness,
evil incarnate
to dance so reckless,
 
dreaming of blood,
her fangs—white—baring,
revealing her lust,
and her eyes, pale, staring ...
 
Originally...

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It's Halloween!
Michael R. Burch

If evening falls
on graveyard walls
far softer than a sigh;

if shadows fly
moon-sickled skies,
while children toss their heads

uneasy in their beds,
beware the witch's eye!

If goblins loom
within the gloom
till playful pups grow terse;

if birds give up their verse
to comfort chicks they nurse,
while children dream weird...

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Brendon earns his bread and butter
as an artist at Anna's -
Anna's Beauty Salon. 
He places the smock across my shoulders
as if it were a feathered gown; 
I feel resplendent already.
Removing the pencil from my messy bun,
he unfastens my hair with
hungry hands. 
His fingers dance with...

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Her soul is cold and dull;
limber limbs grow numb at love's undoing.
Songbirds no longer trill
in gay abandon, sadness spoils their tune.
Winter's blast is coming
with full force, dark days of unfilled longing.

Despair, the too-sharp pang,
unfastens quick the glow of happiness,
defrocks the breast of care
and locks all...

Continue reading...

With chilled and calloused hands, he climbs onto the heavy 
city dumpster, and forces open the steel container.
Peering into the darkness, of green plastic bags fastened with
orange ribbon, he eagerly unfastens his prize package
and fingers its contents of broken crusts and pizza sauce,
which he stuffs...

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Vampires
by Michael R. Burch

Vampires are such fragile creatures;
we fear the dark, but the light destroys them...
sunlight, or a stake, or a cross—such common things.
Still, late at night, when the bat-like vampire sings,
we heed his voice.

Centuries have taught us:
in shadows danger lurks for those who stray,
and...

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It's Halloween!
Michael R. Burch

If evening falls
on graveyard walls
far softer than a sigh;

if shadows fly
moon-sickled skies,
while children toss their heads

uneasy in their beds,
beware the witch's eye!

If goblins loom
within the gloom
till playful pups grow terse;

if birds give up their verse
to comfort chicks they nurse,
while children dream weird...

Continue reading...

Her soul is cold and dull;
limber limbs grow numb at love's undoing.
Songbirds no longer trill
in gay abandon, sadness spoils their tune.
Winter's blast is coming
with full force, dark days of unfilled longing.

Despair, the too-sharp pang,
unfastens quick the glow of happiness,
defrocks the breast of care
and locks all...

Continue reading...

Pale Though Her Eyes
by Michael R. Burch

Pale though her eyes,
her lips are scarlet
from drinking of blood,
this child, this harlot

born of the night
and her heart, of darkness,
evil incarnate
to dance so reckless,

dreaming of blood,
her fangs—white—baring,
revealing her lust,
and her eyes, pale, staring...


Like Angels, Winged
by Michael R. Burch

Like angels—winged,
shimmering,...

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Her soul is cold and dull;
limber limbs grow numb at love's undoing.
Songbirds no longer trill
in gay abandon, sadness spoils their tune.
Winter's blast is coming
with full force, dark days of unfilled longing.

Despair, the too-sharp pang,
unfastens quick the glow of happiness,
defrocks the breast of care
and locks all...

Continue reading...