Long Alley Poems

Village in the Valley left behind, and then it's a fine find
Mountain in the making...in the dark alleys of my mind

You're a flashlight
In the night
You are a friend 
Till the end
Bite the bullet
You're the village...

Read More

Dad hit me only once, an upper cut to the solar plexus. It nearly lifted me off my feet. I was 17 then and already fairly tall, 6’1.” He was 48 and of medium height,...

Read More

It may have been the devil himself who prompted the kids in my schoolyard back in 1947 to chant "Patsy Foley's roly-poly from eating too much ravioli."

At first, no one could remember who started the...

Read More

THE INNER CHAMBER

Please.  Stop holding back on me.

Like a child standing at the neighborhood ice cream truck, arm outstretched, eyes huge, mouth watering.

I stand here longing to slip underneath your decades of cold-rolled steel...

Read More

Self destructive wickedness arrested, convicted, and gaoled...

with kidnapping little boy 
ordered to suffer
life sentence without parole.

The deadly scourge of  
one obsessive/compulsive disorder
nearly left me starving to death.

Anorexia nervosa absent bulimia 
nadir of onset 
diagnoses...

Read More

Note to Readers of Previous Versions:
There are so many new vignettes scattered throughout the poem that I hope you will reread the whole thing! There are many new GEMS, improvements to previous verses and improved...

Read More

Some may say grand dragon others grand wizard either or it began in 60s everything was a bit chaotic the death of John f Kennedy Bobby Kennedy pope John XXlll my birth and Martin Luther...

Read More

     by how many badbyes can you measure the length of your day

                 first comes...

Read More

ON MY MOTHER’S PASSING

i wanted to keep my mother physically with me
but it would be like trying to hold the sun
like in life she still shines brighter than any star
is as gentle as the finest...

Read More

Pellucid pachyderms wade across
the purpling River Manjees
and Tozzath watches from the bank, 
the seat of his maroon pantaloons soaked with mud,
his nostrils flaring with the fragrance of ombadalias,
whose lacey petals flutter
like the wings of long-dead...

Read More

The Gospel according to The Bluesman
Gianni watched the clouds move in
Closed his window for the rain
It was spring and that meant
That it was gonna storm again

He looked out at the street outside
He saw a man...

Read More

A nice couple. The Tale of Jean and William. Part 1

Jean Fallen was born in 1999 and had a lonely childhood. 
She grew up in Redfern but never went to school.
She lived with her mother...

Read More

In the greatness of heavens realm there are many chapters of angels
Arch Angel Micheal the great warrior, Arch Angel Gabriel the great
messenger, Angels who tabulate, Angels who sing, Angels who watch
and for Earth the most...

Read More

SHE was my wife, once ...

long ago, so very long ago ...
we met on the showboat, up-river,
almost fifty years back now ...
I was a young officer for the Confederacy,
working for the Yanks after The Turn,

supplying...

Read More

Traditional Solitaire potential combinations...

that clenched another win today
February 20th, 2024 
(eight hundred and ninety yesterdays ago 
since June 13th, 2021)
original crafting date of following poem,
when yours truly 
single handedly trumped computer, 
for umpteenth time,
which saw...

Read More

Invisibly tortured courtesy existential nihilism

Psyche wracked with agony
impossible mission to extricate lovely bones
they wanna remain permanently abed.

I chiefly function to amass knowledge
courtesy assiduously, habitually,
and judiciously reading
an eclectic assortment of written material.

Yours truly woke
with ambition, disposition,
inclination,...

Read More

Traditional Solitaire potential combinations...
that clenched another win (yahoo)
jimmied today August 15th, 2022 single handedly
just before the crack of dawn
with both hands tied behind my back,
and a blindfold worn over my eyes.

While in the midst of...

Read More

AFTER WEARING WIRES PREGNANT FOR THE FBI BUYING WEAPONS AND DRUGS COMPLETING SEVERAL IT WAS CLEAR MY ABUSIVE EX HUSBAND WAS SEVERELY JUNK SICK HE GREW ANGRY BITTER VERY BITTER PARINOID OF BEING KILLED HE...

Read More

Walking down the alley behind the buildings on Royal street the Mandevilla and Jasmine vines line the sidewalk calming my stressed nerves.  The sweet fragrance of the flowers intoxicating my senses.  My luggage...

Read More

Continued From I Had No Clue It Was Valentines Day Part  I
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was just in time to get my taste back, I wanted something sweet to eat
I continued walking until I reached the place...

Read More

Traditional Solitaire potential combinations...
that clenched another win (today June 13th, 2021) single handedly

While in the midst of playing solitaire 
(with losing outcome foreordained 
after a couple moves), I became gripped 
with combinations predicated on thirteen...

Read More

I got friggin heebie jeebies

Cuz buzzards circle o'er me
eyeing these lovely bones prithee
id est Roy L. T. Canard, Si
hence impossible mission 
to be lovey dove vee.

Vague remembrances of dream  
which recurred with frequency
transfixed by...

Read More

A Place Not Meant To Be
           
PART: II            (699 of 1487 words)

#9: Days of...

Read More

No One
by Michael R. Burch

No One hears the bells tonight;
they tell him something isn’t right.
But No One is not one to rush;
he lies in grasses greenly lush
as far away a startled thrush
flees from horned owls...

Read More

thermometer reads zero, a chilly breeze blows
  apple cores thrown, the blackbirds feed
  my multi-layered partner dons her wooly hat
  impatiently, she waits for me
  securing covid masks amidst my overcoat
...

Read More