Long Americana Poems

The Killing Field”

Ariana nodded, tremolo fingers,
and they ran across the killing field,
watching the steel-toed kite ascend—
a fleeting instant of triumph in the vacuum.
Josh scoffed as it dipped,
both caught in the pull of the abyss,
falling but...

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The Killing Field”

Ariana nodded, tremolo fingers,
and they ran across the killing field,
watching the steel-toed kite ascend—
a fleeting instant of triumph in the vacuum.
Josh scoffed as it dipped,
both caught in the pull of the abyss,
falling but...

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The humble cockroach -

Survival of one wreath speck table insect,
(poll ease pod din me Elmer Fudd speak)
thus earning hardy laurels
nsync with inxs of standing kudos
ranking as bajillion year old species
scientific name: Periplaneta americana
(Linnaeus)  Insecta:...

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{"We don’t run away, we cannot run away from our demons; the very ones that plague us with our history, reminisce on our backstories and they,
Judge. 
Judge, adjudicate us by it, 
Convict us of a...

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SPIDER

Eight furry legs
Approaching black blob
Screeeeeeeeeeeeeech


COCKROACH

Periplaneta americana 
Out of planet, preys on women's tuxedo
Blob of fat, smell, monster


JULIA'S HAIR

Chameleon
Gunslinger, sniper
Death,myriologue


O SPACE

A junkyard
Sepulcher of machines
Requiem

CROW

Squawk 
Squawk
Gasconade 


LIZARD

A baby lizard
Drops on my hand
Check in


TELEPHONE BILL

Krinngggggggggggggg
Krinngggggggggggggg
Pay your bill today...

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This town, this Silk Road had no toll to pay
  yet from the east caravans again fill its
pharaonic marble and glass temples. Monolith

malls rise its clefts, eco-wilderness morph
  into multiplex cinemas; mini golf...

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day and night Blattaria of various shapes and sizes 
scuttle with incandescent 
   after glow as flashing blur rises
to fill every quarter of mine cerebral core, when asleep pries
me lids awake with shell...

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“Deep, deep, deep. Listen and hear our faint gait.
Sanitation, fluorescent lights, and a PC pillow for smother.
Agree! Agree! Atone! Suck it in and suff-o-cate.
White-ness. Black. Ev’ry creed, faith, and color. Listen to Nanny State and...

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A deep wooded valley, heavily condensed with enriching moisture, and more importantly, teeming with an assortment of life, of every size, shape, and species. One such life just awoke and has spread its delicate see-through...

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========== O

Monday night. Moving magazines. Aimed dead at killing an evening, my fingers target =========
These same old four buttons;  >.

1, 2, 3, 4. Five’s a pipedream. Gaudy, small-minded and trapped in affected...

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Indestructible, for Johnny Cash
by Michael R. Burch
 
What is a mountain, but stone?
Or a spire, but a trinket of steel?
Johnny Cash is gone,
black from his hair to his bootheels.
 
Can a man out-endure mountains’ stone
if...

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It's a day.
There's a flip in it.
First bit is a blah, blah, blah - lots of stuff we'll deal with later. You know, how it might all end as relayed by a doctor, but that's...

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Naciste en San Jose, California; eres Americana. Mis padres creados en Guanajuato, son Mexicanos. Me crié hablando espanol con música de mariachi y fue inculcada en mi la cultura y tradiciones de mi México. Estuviste...

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There will be times
A brilliant sunset
when I will
A microphone 
see something,
The scent of lilacs
smell something,
A roaring fireplace
hear something, 
A starry sky 
taste something,
A full moon 
touch something...
A big snowstorm
reminders of you...
A walk at the seashore...

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Progress
by Michael R. Burch

There is no sense of urgency
at the local Burger King.

Birds and squirrels squabble outside
for the last scraps of autumn:
remnants of buns,
goopy pulps of dill pickles,
mucousy lettuce,
sesame seeds.

Inside, the workers all move
with the...

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It was a tin-roof wooden house standing 
Across the red brick cobblestone street 
Adjacent to a wide open field full
Of shady live oak and sweet smelling tangerine trees where 
My father’s boyhood home was nestled...

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Alas, never seen along highways and byways anymore,
Was some very classic poetry that has become American lore!
'Tis sad that these masterpieces have vanished from the scene.
So I want to add some Burma Shave verse from...

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Pictures still there                                ...

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She speaks with her nose opened wide
Like that of  Queen  Elizabeth the none
From the fringe of the nose
She speaks very fluently 
Chewing Queen’s language
With her head high up	
She must have been an “Americana”
No!...

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Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry 
Some days I live, some days I die 
Sometimes I stand tall, sometimes I crawl 
Then I pace the floor, then I pound the wall. 
Give me relief from...

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The Day Your Child Stabs You
Version 1

In order to weep
I guess I must care; 
At least enough to stress
Over these words, to share. 
To her free mind, half mine
She stares down at me...
But not for...

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William Bonny AKA Billy The Kid
A Tale Of Billy The Kid
By Robert Gorelick

“Quien esta?”

Bang!  It’s over, 
you’re a legend now, 
Billy.

Born in Hell’s Kitchen in
ramshackle consumptive squalor,
New York’s crammed gang infected
rat-infested shacks 
and alleys.

Amid...

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I see by the news that they may level a bit of Americana.
Alas, 'tis that old icon, the railroad depot in Richmond, Indiana.
I have many fond and not so fond memories of that old place.
Unless...

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A patriotic bunting, hanging from a porch,
black lines of a Model-T, back when we liked Ford,
porcelain sign from the 30s, somehow ad and art,
the fun and fear we got from tossing a lawn dart.
Rich, decadent...

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A chilly mist hung in the air that Sunday morning in April when I pulled up in front of Harpers Grove Community Church. The gravel parking lot was rapidly filling up, and folks, nodding cordially...

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