Long Blanketed Poems

Sonnets LXI-LXX

Erin
by Michael R. Burch

All that’s left of Ireland is her hair?
bright carrot?and her milkmaid-pallid skin,

her brilliant air of cavalier despair,
her train of children?some conceived in sin,

the others to avoid it. For nowhere
is evidence of...

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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...

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“He fought often and once bled in the cause of freedom, but his habits of War did not lessen in him the peaceful virtues which adorn his private life.”  Doctor Benjamin Rush, signer of...

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"I am a painter and my eyes are the paint brushes I had if I look up with my open eye I see the Horizon I see the clouds to be continued
Oh shutter as I...

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Sponsor: Carol Eastman

Long before Christmas had become a jolly folklore,
I met a grandfatherly man...
He was clean shaven, tiny and crabby,
And always wore a floppy black suit, his name was Mr. Atnas.

See, I was at such...

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To faith communities
and fraternities,
brotherhoods
and sisterhoods
and sororities,
local non-profits
and friendly neighborhoods,
mediators
and counselors,
cooperative associations,
trauma-informed learning theorists
and practitioners for resilient
mind/body peace,

Do not deceive yourselves.
Continuing to gaze and daze 
on a monotonous monocultural path

Disassociating 
internal v external
navel v social 
my...

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I feel like my life is a clean slate
When I’m reaching out to you
I feel you lingering in my thoughts...
You stitched up my insecure frame of mind 
And stitched up the little pieces of memory...

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Mine own son
God, did bless me
sunshine that's mind
mine own heart's petals bloom 
joy i did shed while i did see thee
in mine arms wast w'rthwhile

lullabies sung as thee didst lie in thy crib 
meaningful mem'ries...

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The roof’s the limit, hon, sorry – I can’t change the rules nor can I mask the night with delight that will let you down in the aftermath…
So, stop throwing your two-year-old fits…once again, darkness...

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Kindly stick to digging pineapples in the future as magic dust particles can really only spring up in defense patterns. And is it really wise to deal cards in a high tide. Deliver not an...

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My daughter,
with Fetal Alcohol crippling emotional intelligence damage
and Cerebral Palsy perpetual TerribleTwo
"is too many,
because Earth is all about ego-defiant me"
has taught herself
to attach her lips,
and sometimes her wet licking tongue
when she is feeling particularly needy
and/or...

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Who suggests a trip back...rides to this bit of nostalgia in the middle years of the Great Depression aboard a Chicago elevated train, "the El." We hurdle head-long above asphalt blanketed streets that are determined...

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He said he planned to freeze to death.

Did he mean to have his body frozen?
Stored to hatch again later,
leftovers out of time's deep freezer of waiting.

No, not that.
He responds with undeniable dismissal,
this would not be...

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Alexandria, Egypt is well known for being the city where Cleopatra once ruled her people and both she and her famous lover, Mark Anthony met their final, tragic fates.  It is where the "Pharos...

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This has been a hot minute to say the cold hard truth. I second that! Glasses full of hours turn hands into long time. Darkness saves the day. Light work is easy. Take care; bear...

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A cold dark yellow unhallowed moon smiles beguilingly
In the pitch-black starless and cold empty night sky 
Suckling upon the blood and the very life force of 
Pure innocence, light, and goodness . . . .

Fear...

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One generic baby boomer, (a garden variety sexagenarian)...
offers his interpretation of critical race theory

I, (an articulate, charming, domesticated, 
erudite, friendly, genteel, humorous, intelligent,
kind, learned, male, albeit modest – married) 
with freshly clipped formerly gnarly toenails
discounts...

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The range in its majesty gives way to open thoughts of the wild things in taming, I have eaten hard pan and dust as my regular meal to be had.

I to the constant trail beaten...

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THE SEEKER

A weaving’s blending is spun within the soil of the discontent,
Legends are the roots of cultures, stories woven within the 
Fabrics of societies, but the colors of truth reveal the shocking
Details of wrong deeds,...

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Welcome to Bridal Veil.
The beauty is beyond compare.
As you walk down the peaceful trail, 
Strange whispers might fill the air,
of Maswein, the magician forgotten tale.
O' the lore and truths, it begs to share.
May this humble...

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Yes I can still see her...

through rose colored glasses,

imagined!

In fact,

She is gorgeous.

I remember saying...

or at least thinking out loud

...You take my breath away,

She was a perfect site to behold; I am sure men literally 
fell...

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Once upon a night so bleak,
frozen silent laid the creek --
air of death, pushed, swore
and swore...as if were fists
pounded the frail, wood door;

shutters noised, bolting and
banging; metal hinges oddly
clanging – cupboard glasses
adding more tumultuous tang,...

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"In my battered whelms;
Those profiles which I never win;
My healing has just begun,

they begin...

The winter storms;
often remind me of my birth
my birth when I was born

in the cold months of January...

there was I buried out...

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"50 Words for Poe: Baskervilles"
 

 
Baskervilles 
was loping over graves 
digging dirt for bones 
sniffing evidence of dead souls
counting tomes 
it flayed time & bled the gut 
of it’s own black soul
ate it inside...

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When heinous fangs
of life drain
the amethyst glow
flowing above 
infected ripples of time,
I question the 
chaos that claims
serenity through 
saline serenade 
of sirens, composed 
with midnight ink
across a mazed face 
of a starless canvas,
What if these...

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