Long Black on black Poems

If God
is good
half the Bible
is libel.
-Michael R. Burch

*

Willy Nilly
Michael R. Burch

Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
You made the stallion,
you made the filly
and now they sleep
in the dark earth, stilly.
Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?

Isn’t it silly, Willy...

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Willy Nilly
by Michael R. Burch

for the Demiurge aka Yahweh and Jehovah 

Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
You made the stallion,
you made the filly,
and now they sleep
in the dark earth, stilly.
Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
 
Isn’t it...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems X

These are early poems written in my teens and twenties.

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...

and show me
once...

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Thanksgiving, 1971,
a parachute pilgrim approaches Northwest Flight 305
as Dan Cooper, anonymous businessman,  anarchist airborne, 
black suit, black sunglasses, a black tie
and a black briefcase broaching black motives,
Portland to Seattle, prison or criminal pantheon, 
before...

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Starlight and Moonlight II

These are poems about starlight and moonlight, moons and stars, dreams and visions, illuminations and intimations …




Deliver Us...
by Michael R. Burch 

for my mother, Christine Ena Burch

The night is dark and scary—
under...

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A prawn masquerading as a peanut can be quite disturbing. So many times a peel is a garment used to shroud. A tentacle hidden. Here and there. Then to reappear with an often violent burst...

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I once spent a week in the drunk tank
couldn't handle the spirits that I drank
the cuisine wasn't half bad
we even had a few laughs
but I had to guard my butt with a shank


……………………………………………………………………….


It used to...

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ME dear FATHER you already know,
But you need to be briefed,
On a tragedy I believe you must not know.
There’s a deadly dance with violence killing teens in America’s Black Communities.
Use to be, 
Good Christian mothers,...

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When I Was Born in '45
By Franklin Price
08/08/202

When I was born in '45, was another time and place
Merritt Island, I called home, we had not gone to space
Segregation was the way, we lived back in...

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Listen
by Immanuel A. Michael (an alias of Michael R. Burch)

1.
Listen to me now
and heed my voice;
I am a madman, alone,
screaming in the wilderness,
but listen now.

Listen to me now, and if I say
that black is black
and...

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"White the Lowest Sky"



Cries the Lowest Sky 
tear drops fed as manna
o’er the littlest warrior 
face raised to ultra Light

The 3
that sit in Ultra Gamma
there cries the lowest Sky
the voice that ever hears you

Cries the...

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I saw you …

high …
atop the promontory
spinning with manic madness
pirouettes et fouetté
lost in yourself -
in movement …
your upper back split, low
and, I swear -
feathers … peeking …
tucked under your shoulder blades
splayed and black as black
(obsidian...

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'Twas a sound I thought alarming, most assuredly disarming;
Up I rose from peaceful slumber to discern what it might be.
While my candle flickered, wavered; whilst my heartbeat halted, quavered,
At my window I was favoured by...

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Perchè Sono Me (Why I am me)
I keep learning because I am tired of watching others fail. 
I speak because my mind wants to gain more knowledge. 
I will not follow others by the tail....

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The bones of winter cracked the ice black, coal black night.
A hoary wind spits frost crystals that dazzle and blur the sight.
Boney fingers of bare deciduous wood, scratch against the eaves
as the stranger's tread crackles...

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You were there again just like before your eyes shifted a bit your smile still warm as that March madness the pile pastel poker chips the smell of disguarded cigarette butt's the feel of a...

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Indeed, the truth will always be self-evident

and beyond all lies;

Though they laid down the 5th to ensure deniability

of evident charges,

Over the trials of history—his-story—true crime can’t

ape innocence.

The crime—infamous in time—began with the first Christianized

slave ship...

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We went all our children
To be in land of the free
We want all our children
To be, to be
Live in a land of liberty
By our consitution written by men 
For all men
And when you're done all...

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“Childhood only exists”
“While its innocence lives”
“In time, it is stripped away”
“By what, our invidious reasoning gives”     WIZDUMBs by JA 223           ...

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(Thinks) I Float like a Butterfly and sting like a tazer.
Mouth of the South, but my lips don't say (intelligent) 
words
Like Muhammad Alley Bin drive by shooting
Bin Laden with
delusions of g,
Being a lefty, I blame...

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Heavy heart 

Die  die
The fear in my eye
I can hide behind this badge
It will protect me and mines 

Is this how you feds think
Is this how you feds feel
You fear the color of my...

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Heavy heart 

Die  die
The fear in my eye
I can hide behind this badge
It will protect me and mines 

Is this how you feds think
Is this how you feds feel
You fear the color of my...

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This is Nigeria where every thief is honest;
Where every politicians are good yet, they are probe.
This is Nigeria where every students are wise.
This is Nigeria where every He-Goats smell not.
This is Nigeria where every eyes...

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The moving finger writes and having writ
moves on. And that's the bitter core of it.

So did you scheme to mold we are so base,
like you're disgusted in the human race?

And was it the mirror that...

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Part 9

there is a wraith with an hourglass
dancing quietly in my shadow
he's gone when I look
but I can hear him do a shuffle step on the ice
his inside out umbrella more than a fashion statement
about...

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