Long Bugles Poems

The flames of the furnace (well-travelled by wind
slowly glazing the rags of gray women chagrined
at the sight of a hair fleeing tresses now thinned) 
sometimes billow like waves flooding naves through the night,
when the lightning...

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“Blue Angels, Black Sheep, Monitors and The House of Random Penguins” 

The womb
is scooped like 
an over ripe melon
Time is the incorrigible felon,
the forgotten lost garden explored 
overturned and raked, 
neatly messed, 
in more ways...

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February came in keeping with its ancient character a month of coldness, wetness and of thawing,
With departing frost and melting snow, February could possibly be called the wet season,
Maybe it's a time for floods and...

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Grim reaper forever guaranteed eternal plentiful harvest

the following written 
for no particular rhyme nor reason
quite aware the exit (stage door left)
allows, enables, to provide every season
with a bumper crop of dead souls.

many mortals beseechingly 
lift...

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Hiroshima Poems I

Let Us Be Midwives!
by Hiroshima survivor Sadako Kurihara
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Midnight...
the basement of a shattered building...
atomic bomb survivors sniveling in the darkness...
not a single candle between them...
the odor of blood...
the stench...

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 Part 3

9th Delerium: Emptyness
Water wheels in wastelands... turning,
drowning relics in the slum
Rumpled rags of fashioned burlap... burning,
lit by bandits blind and dumb
Pastured prisons, ponies bridled ... yearning,
forest fairies under thumb
Sounds inside of cauldrons coughing......

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1861

Dust rises from the rutted road.  Cannon laden caissons rumble slowly forward.  A red sun competing with the campfires glow. Weary troops break camp, joining the ranks of
colleagues on the move. An enemy,...

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I watched the endless procession of stalwart youth, resplendent in their panoply gathered, a 
steelly passion filling resolute gait.
And I asked of them, "To what place does such noble assemblage march?"
"To the Temple of Ares,...

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Nestled in verdant woods on a hilly terrain,
The sequestered chapel stood, tranquil was the place
With a calm drowning the hubbub around
With blooming plants adorning the encircling space

Gently moved to that well protected chapel
Tip toeing through...

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He devastated foreign pastures

As a cog in a well oiled evil wheel 

A nameless legalized conqueror


They praised his endless courage

Reckless bravery under command

Following orders no questions asked


The contest was rigged in his favour

A mega machine...

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When I plumb the depths of my throbbing heart
All great moments before my eyes dart
The good and bad ones I lived through
The sweet and sour moments, quite a few. 

Life can’t always be a smooth...

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Historically accurate, narrative poem

27 November 1868, on the banks of the Washita River  

Dawn’s peaceful first light streaks the eastern skies, 
belying the horror of a marauding force of horses and men,
silently stealing over...

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March 8 Relationship to God Bible Meditations Based on Judges 7-9

Key Verses –Judges 7:18 and 20… The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.

LORD GOD, YOU ARE MY DIVINE SWORD
				
Lord God, You are my divine...

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The legion march quickly north, 
armed with glaudius , pila, and, scutum.
Prefect Claudius Flavius was in command of the First Cohort.
Vanguard in the lead, flankers to the sides, rear guard looking behind.
They marched steady and...

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Nothing is as beautiful as watching the sun set in its splendor and radiance.
Nothing is so natural as watching the nature blossom in its peacefulness.
The birds singing in their sonorous voices.
The trees and plants blowing...

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I just hear bugles i just hear trumpets and horns
I am the fool a slayer of rule an androgynous clone of make believe
thought a trance, sometimes not knowing what's real as free a rational ability
I...

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He stands atop the ancient towers, both grey and cold as skies 
Which howl about and bow the trees, and blow his longish hair— 
His countenance stern, he stares below to where his army lies;...

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The young lieutenant's uniform
pressed and fit; a second skin 
he was young; strong, as once was I
On his face the surety of innocence,
it set his jaw, as mine had been
back when good and bad were...

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On a dirty grey Monday morning a drizzle in the wind, a black car stopped,
From the car stepped an officer who gazed around looking for door numbers,
His head turned it fixed on a woman's house...

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(On the Opposite Sides)

When you cry i'll come running/
down where the lilies bloom/
beneath the willow tree,/
a farmer's field/ of war and peace/
echoing vacant sound,/ pain, pain go away./
Big brother/ you are in my blood/
the flower...

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Up before dawn, a feeling has drawn 
You into the mountain and trees.
Till the silence within, upon the whispering wind
A chime of bugles tease the breeze.
That majestic call, that is heard each fall
Since before our...

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The winter winds moan among those forlorn monuments to death,
Marking the spots where brave men fell gasping their last breath.
Upon bleak Calhoun Hill where Seventh Cavalrymen gave their all,
Now lie 225 souls in hallowed graves...

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Loosely based on the movie Arsenic and Old Lace.
I’m sure you’ll excuse the rambling for that is what
the movie was like — an adrenal rush of dark and crazy!

Teddy Roosevelt: “Bully for you.”

BULLY FOR POISON

no...

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Existential fear abandoned for the sake of delusion

Nuclear freeze in her heart of alchemy’s shivers 

Veiled shadows dancing to the echo of silence

Intemperance sounding choral confusion of fate 

Rosemary scents a bunch of renegade petals...

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Does your coat keep you warm and dry my dearest friend as you lay still and silent,
Did your metal helmet protect you on ruined fields as God called and took you away,
Did it hurt when...

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