Long Absinthe Poems

"The Calming of Her Storm"



My mother gave me solace
I fell into her deep hollows
to kiss the wisdom of her 
breath chanting quietly 
I still hear her 
nightingale birdsong caressing 
the soft fluttering 
of her tireless...

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Her full name was Labyrinthia Pennyweight Babineaux, but her closest friends called her Libby. She was of blended French, German, and Native American heritage. Her Great Great Grandparents were said to have come from a...

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"Two Worlds Split"



One world 
fell into unlit hues 
black swallows 
black dogs their consort
murderous their crows
black wings of darkest blue

dark knight,
their oceans
locked in 
another's,
lost eternally,
dark nighted

corralling 
the purple heart bruised,
deadly nightshades pierce
the shadows hiding
under the...

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Happy shiny tummy courtesy...I REM ember in place of stipend

An appetizer, essentially an
out of this world guacamole
quasi Neptune salad,
regarding self taught cook
earning prized counterpart
five Michelin stars,
when the missus artfully, carefully,
cannily, decorously, deftly,
and happily prepared
earlier today...

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"50 Words for Poe: camera obscura"



The Night Flower 
turns in her bed
in a dark room
stories of wraiths 
like flies buzzing in her head
and blood-sucking bugs that bite
Rippers and lovers dead
come to collect her from her
ornery...

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Early Poems XIV

Am I
by Michael R. Burch

Am I inconsequential;
do I matter not at all?
Am I just a snowflake,
to sparkle, then to fall?

Am I only chaff?
Of what use am I?
Am I just a feeble flame,
to flicker,...

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Night lifts ebon shroud from curved satin sky,
drizzle of gold streaks at dawn has begun,
paints pearl on meadow with few dew drops shy,
dance of hue starts under shimmer of sun.
Cadence of cloud descends to flush...

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you …

found your way in -
a keyhole that I had left unguarded
squeezing through
with fiery wings folded like leaves
I should’ve seen it coming
but your “goodbye” had been such
a jagged edge
and seemed so … determinate
I knew what...

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I balance my illicitly obtained bottle of absinthe from a man who knows a man, for an exorbitant amount of Euros, on the worn wooden windowsill of my topmost room at the rundown pension overlooking...

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You sought to spread God’s holy word
But Vincent, your voice went unheard 

To another passion you turned
In that fire, oh how you burned

The whirlwinds of your troubled mind
Were birthed onto your canvass fine

As sweeping twirls...

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To the proud parents, Anna and Theo
A serious lad, silent and thorough
A clan of preachers
And dealers of art
From the southern Netherlands came Van Gogh

When sent to school, he did not want to go
The separation led...

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I sauntered in an evening mist
   A midnight's heaven, magic-kissed
      Lamp-lit raindrops pattered, awesome
         Shining city turned violet blossom
 ...

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Another White Christmas
coming down
hard ...
Asphalt bitter cold
Danny Boy blues ain’t o-Kaye-o     
Broken glass Dean-o voice
Martini sing in absinthe stinging
d minor   ~   Road to Hope got
Crossed 'B' out...

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     oh ...

have you seen my darling boy
    blond hair, like corn silk, falling?
      lost, his sparkling absinthe eyes
  but still, my...

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EL JALEO

school outing …

prep school day trip -
the Isabella Gardner Museum, Boston …
I round a corner inside,
a sunny courtyard to my left
ahead, an exquisite scalloped arch
sculpted columns on each end
and beyond, softly lit ...
- I...

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Honesty presides in these fresh sonnets
Where breathing seeks to set example
For future generations on thresholds
Of honest wit staying apt and ample
Poets questioning meaning in long life
While judging and evoking honesty
They hold themselves above impending strife
And...

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(Up-Tempo Shuffle)


VERSE A

Each war of personalities
Within your crowded soul
Reaps a gasp of mystery
Anticipated - anticipated ...

But just a flash of golden-green
One sweetened liquored gaze
I'm on a slope that's slippery
Intoxicated - intoxicated - oh


CHORUS 1

I drink...

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The truth of their own beholder. There is none in him in their golden deceit                    ...

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Look out into the darkness and hear the remnants of cities. 
The faint, ghostly echo of music wafting through the air, carried by the smell of cigarette smoke before it grows stale, 
that diffuses the...

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In a library where time has paused to rest its heavy wings,
two shadows float among the rows like phantoms lost in ink,
where smoke rises like memories of a forgotten dream,
two souls meet and burn like...

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"The Wormwood Portfolio"



Reams of stories
riddled with worms
wood for burning
all the children
cover their eyes
tears smoked 
into the lungs
gender fluid
propheticising 
bitter water
electric brains
chipped like 
fine-boned China
downloading 
overloads 
dumps are
damp 
the fuse 
sizzles and
stops

green as absinthe
gauche ghosts
gone all...

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Never the never


If all was to disappear in front of your eyes, 
Would you still reach out for me?  
In an echo chamber I am only ever, 
Calling out for you to hear the...

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Stepping past the crater towards your door,
     I am reminded of warm days
surrendered in flowery abandon while
     brushing against cool veins of
leafy promise, requiring only the slightest
     compassion for the flow of life.

The scope of our crusade sings...

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“Tell all the truth but tell it slant—”
So you whispered, Emily, through shrouded lace,
while your pen carved light into Amherst shadows.
But truth, even slant, can cut,
and not all knives find a hand to hone them.

And...

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Every time I see you, you're more red and in the West
I’m always anxious, you don’t seem to know the word exists
It comes and goes, you always know, what’s lost will be replaced
Here, I ruminate...

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