Long Beards Poems

They were gambling in front of the house.
Manservants and pages bustled about
Serving Suitors who just curse and carouse.
Few mix wine with water. I heard one shout,
"Clean down the tables with wet sponges! Rouse
Yourselves! And when...

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Where Does the Butterfly Go?
by Michael R. Burch

for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba

Where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails,
when thunder howls,
when hailstones scream,
when winter scowls,
when nights compound dark frosts with snow ...
Where...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems IX

These are early poems of mine, written in my teens as a high school student and during my first two years of college.

Shock
by Michael R. Burch

It was early in the morning of...

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“Now behind the eyes and secrets of the dreamers in the streets rocked to sleep by the sea, see the titbits and topsyturvies, bobs and buttontops, bags and bones, ash and rind and dandruff and...

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White old men are kind
White old men are divine
White old men are my brothers
White old men are inviting me to supper
White old men are my dream
White old men are very clean
White old men want to...

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“Are there many Fairy Folk other than the elves?”  Joulupukki queried.
     “Not so many as before the humans took control of the world.  The ones left behind in Erin...

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Unquotable Quotes VIIIL : SEXUAL HARASSMENT* - the feminist kind

(*”aggressive pressure or intimidation”: Is it really “any different” in most cases in the act, judging by Hollywood standards?)

STOP: ARREST ALL GIRLS
 - standing with legs...

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Down deep beneath fathoms icy keep, where deadmen’s
Scream in utter silences aquatic hell, amongst the devils
Graveyard of wreckage's carnage, there exists a ghostly harbor
Of phantom ships!
Anchored are the souls of the undead, and vessels craft...

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The People of the Enchanted Forest 

In times of folklore where many a tall tale told
The town folk spoke of mystic stories so bold
Of a forest, never seen by the likes of any man
Where mystical...

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Oblique! 
(The day the gray line Wavered) 

It was hot again, for the third straight day, but it was the 3rd of July; the time the place was Gettysburg and the year was sixty-three 
The...

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Early Poems XVI

The Beautiful People
by Michael R. Burch

They are the beautiful people,
and their shadows dance through the valleys of the moon
to the listless strains of an ancient tune.

Oh, no ... please don't touch them,
for their...

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NDIDI (PATIENCE IS GOLDEN)

Patience said:
"Whatever my old man says."
So,
I saw the wise, bald, old man
In his thatched mud hut
Loin cloth knotted 
Around his shoulders 
The whiff of utaba (snuff)
Saturating the atmosphere

He googled me
Between the rims...

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The sun upon my face blinds me as my boat rocks gently
through the rolling swells that lap against the hull.
The sound of the droning engine mesmerizes my mind
bringing a dreaminess to this bright cool...

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Are you the butterfly
while in my dreams
I flit after Soshi?
—Basho, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

It's not at all anxious to bloom,
the plum tree at my gate.
—Kobayashi Issa, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The red...

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By Elton Camp

North on Highway Forty-Three 
Up into the state of Tennessee

Ethridge is the name of the place
A colony of the Amish embrace

Wide gravel lanes to the side
Is where the buggies can ride

Out of the...

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“If you are reading this note then I have
succeeded in trying to kill myself,
which means that I have killed the people who
did this to me, so my story I’ll tell.

“You’re wondering how I got to...

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EULOGY TO MRS (Ph.D) ALIHAJA, AMINAT OLABOOPO                            ...

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I promise — that ain't me
I'm not the guy in the mirror
The guy is so beardy
Cheeky faced
With a big thick lips
That isn't me

Remember when I smile
It's a crooked one
One side of my lip
Seems to go...

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Raisin just stared at the chaos ahead
A kitten, confused as she sat there in dread
The world has gone mad, all the people have flipped
She glared at a window where blood and gore dripped

Folk wearing specs...

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To the common folk the life of a merchant may seem to be a dull and boring one.
But I declare it is not, it is a life full of many wondrous adventures.
For a young elf...

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Heavy shootings and more,
Primitive lead Automatics and their ancient songs, Contemporary Lasers and 
these sights of your futuristic DNA-CONTACT-ELIMATOR and more,
Please lets speak to Rome....The very place the revolution will erupt,
Where in this filthy universe...

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THE REPLY FROM THE PRESENT TO THE PAST
            (NO TO XENOPHOBIA II) 
With the paper on my hand 
I wondered what to do as...

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Twas the night before Christmas - came like a flash,
Mob of gingerbread reindeer prodding elves for cache.

The Clausman reigning, doling out orders this stint.
Lady of his, keeps his tongue supplied with peppermints.

The vainglorious list of...

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He stands, 
his left leg resting upon a powder keg,
slightly bent, 
with arms resting upon his knee.
                  ...

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DO NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH A POET
by Jonah Okpabi
.
Do not fall in love with a Poet
Poets are poor
Their pockets are empty
Above all they are liars
They tell you words with a different meaning
They tell you...

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