Long Bets Poems

Poems of Recanted Bachelorhood

bachelorhoodwinked
by Michael R. Burch

u
are
charming
& disarming,
but mostly ALARMING
since my resolve
dissolved!

*

Disconcerted
by Michael R. Burch

Beth, my sweet,
fresh as a daisy,
when I’m with you
my heart beats like crazy
& my future gets hazy ...

*

What Goes Around, Comes
by...

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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...

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LOVE POEMS V

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch, about life, the dream of love, virtue, a first kiss, a first crush, the birth of a first relationship, the joy of a first love...

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Regret
by Michael R. Burch

Regret,
a bitter
ache to bear . . .

once starlight
languished
in your hair . . .

a shining there
as brief
as rare.

Regret . . .
a pain
I chose to bear . . .

unleash
the torrent
of your hair . ....

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“But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet;Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
–“He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven,” by W.B. Yeats 

“I love you...

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Two new crutches and two double shots of Bushmills Irish Whiskey enabled Joe Faherty to move from the back seat of Moira Murphy's 1976 Buick into Eagan's Funeral Home for Tim McGillicuddy's wake. At 87,...

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Part I.

Harvest time was winding down, 
I was taking lunch in town, 
After spending six long hours plowing stubble.
Washing up I met a man, 
Guessed he was a harvest hand, 
His combine crew, he said,...

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I was speaking with my good friend
Donald John
the Evangelist for AntiChrist
the other day.

And I had to ask,
Donald John,
Why are you so against health care
for all our not yet slaughtered
and otherwise dead already?

Except perhaps health services...

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On the extremity of  a tall bank 
Of big broken stones in round circle done
We reached up a more cruel clutter flank;

And there, for the horrible and strong stun
Of rotten stench which the deep...

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This was last Saturday night. We were at a rooftop party in downtown New Haven thrown by ‘DocHouse.’ Doc-House is kind of a frat-house, owned by Dr. Melon, where he and seven doctoral students live....

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“The History of a Wasted Mind”

 

What goes through the mind of a recidivist
Fist full of hate and hurt marking time
Fist full of history, got down with the dirt
The History of a Wasted Child
The History...

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Galactic Strings or Void of Space?

A poem’s akin to a necklace, one fashioned
of water-worn pebbles (from rarest of realms),
stone cold truths tumble-polished, love’s chord weaves together.
Do fossilized beads left behind in Life’s wake
spark faint hint...

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Digital Creationism
(Man 0, God 1)         

Part 1: Binary God
For men it seems God is a binary function
And like ones and zeros 'HE IS ON or 'he's off.'
Is...

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That soft-spoken Sovereign commands a big stick, 
runs the world into ruins, once our bailiwick.
If asked why, He grins grimly, pale lips slightly pursed:
"Vindication? Straightforward: It's Me and Me First" 

(To mesmerise people He needed...

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Now in my decline from a time back then
  I remember the days in a life when I was ten,
when we lived in a shadow much greater
  at the foot of the mount...

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I heard, a couple days ago, the Austin Armadillos 
spent thirty million dollars for some slugger named Peru
Whose last year’s on-base-average, from the year before, had doubled 
from a pretty wimpy POINT-O-ONE - to a...

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I never cared to do the dangerous things, and liked to play it safe,
But the strict bonds of ordinariness, can oftentimes start to chafe.

I always preferred to cover my bets, for I hated the idea...

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Hi!
I'm Sister EarthChild
journalist with Youth Radio
speaking with Mother Time,
who recently published her hilarious
"Journeys With Father Time:
Wasted Journals of Mother Time."

First, I want you to know
I've been reading your book
as if it were my own story.
So,...

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The monumental bane of OCD - obsessive compulsive disorder

As origin of Homo Sapien species surged ahead,
harboring nascent predominance
asper said primate reproductively bred,
(albeit via incremental fits and starts)
evolutionary forebears didst dread
Tom Tom Club former members
an American...

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(1.)
Beware, Nightmarish Dreams Are Oft By Raven Sent,
(In Tribute To Edgar Allen Poe)

When incantations stoke fiery embers,
eerie nights, their sounds roust to remember
ghosts of yesteryears, so birthed to dark play
within nightmarish dreams, as monsters slay.

Around...

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Twilight was softenin’ the warm summer sky
As the sun fled the fields with ‘er gold,
An’ the fellers were gatherin’ for bourbon an’ rye 
Where the tales of McHenry were told.

Whenever the moon was as full...

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CORRUPTION
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS


Now that I’m approaching the final inning
I need to re assess the ideas I had at the beginning
I thought that if you were altruistic and right
That alone was the strength needed to fight
To...

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What did you learn to play
in school today?
Hedging future winning bets
against lost devolving yesterday

I learned religious history
of manifest colonizing destiny,
Responsibility to over-rule healthy integrity,
Authority to addictively enslave
our lesser prey,
womanfest cooperative destiny,
without duplicity.

How is such sad...

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Dad was loadin' rods and tackle, I was addin' fuel, as Mom hopped on with a picnic lunch that balmy afternoon.
Another Sunday outing on the lake - our old routine - as sister Susie tossed...

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Learning disabled, hopelessly unemployed
Troy can't write the address for his next interview.
Warehouse stock, 331 Tiffany Street, in the Bronx.
His girlfriend, Trinity, also unemployed,
with one child by Troy. She's more resourceful
but doesn't realize it. For one...

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