Long Byline Poems

Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm that wells within?
How can the ocean not be blue,
not buck with the clapboard slap of tide,
the clockwork shock of wave on rock,
the...

Read More

.
Palpable 
fear lurks
a mystery
in the Air
a certain 
eerie feel
suspects
an killers
can come
anywhere
The strike
is invisible 
no tools or
weapon no
no trace no
fngerprints 
It’s in thin air
creeps ..
shudder... horror
Now everyone wears masks
All are Suspects All are Culpable
Three new cases...

Read More

who had a normal name

Now that October glides into November, we sleep later
till nine, and we do not use the living room heater, sit in the kitchen, watch TV after breakfast.
A light morning meal to...

Read More

It is no longer headline news,

If anything scientific happens
it happens for a rational reason

If anything violent doesn't happen,
does it not happen
for an irrational unreasoned
compassionate nonresponse?

It is no longer byline news,
toxic anthro-aggressive at-most-spheres,
dark forbidding climes,
cold winter
evil...

Read More

My muse did her fealty recuse
My honor she did stealthily reconnoiter
My discourse was grounds for divorce
Finding my writing no longer enlightening
My blithe parlance no longer my mistress did entrance
With my prose she did forthrightly dispose
Each...

Read More

I've been wondering about our secret selves...

The vegetarian smoker
The introverted joker

The soldier with the peace sign
The anonymous byline

The accountant with unfinished sums
The deaf musician's steel drums

The blue collar millionaires
The conservative who dares

The scientist who prays
The...

Read More

The Unbiassed Media

Bombs rain on Gaza, the youth throw stones, the Israeli soldiers killed 
or maim stone throwers, a dance of death.
What do the leading media say? Not very much,
the Gazans must be partly blamed;...

Read More

Listen to my nursery rhyme
A tale so regaling, yet sublime
Sated with jester, clown and mime
Riddler along to sanction every, literary crime

Mime to mimic my contorted form
Jester to scuttle every, accepted norm
Clown to mock all that...

Read More

Words that echo the sublime
Each syllable resounds a doleful chime
Accentuated by a bleak, monotonous rhyme
That skews the cadence and scuttles the time
Words that filter through, then prime
Heart's engine to slowly pine
Fueled by structural anomalies; sick,...

Read More

Noel Neill passed away,
No Superman to save the day.
If unfamiliar with her name,
Then you're too young to know her fame.

But those of us of certain age
Can see her byline on the page -
"The Daily Planet,"...

Read More

so many gallons of it, of highest quality,
smooth but potent: where did it come from?
the servants who filled the jars with water
have the clue, but must keep mum;
most guests, incurious, gratefully quaff it

he’d first refused...

Read More

here comes the buzz
here comes the feed
don't bother with facts
there's really no need

if you're looking for stories
to sensationalize
if you need entertainment
just fill it with lies

and where we are going
is anyone's guess 
as we fill in...

Read More

When the byline was my line, I soared past the skyline
    
    When my line was the bye-line, I boarded the Sioux Line ... 




   _______________________________________________
 ...

Read More

“Nature Lover” my byline,
Hell, I even like girls
But where I draw the line
Is mosquitos and squirrels.

Love how bug zapper spark fries,
Pellet gun is so nice,
Squirrel’s carcass on ice,
Tiny smoke clouds from trap rise.

With the clean...

Read More

Heart's cover sealed in burgeoning prime
Fading leaves folded in the book of time
Follicles of love blanched on the pages sublime
Billowy blades dulled with eroding sands that modulate and slime
Bleached, seamless threads spliced in the deep...

Read More

micro-fine is the line
time by line, byline
-
grain by grain by grain 
it passes discrete with
total indiscretion of desire

slow down, speed up, 
turn around and float
up the venturi to come
again so that I may BE
there again...

Read More

There was a moment 
in time and space no distance 
can erase when she was standing 
on an island in the middle 
of Times Square, cars whirling around 
from all directions, their Technicolor
taillights additive to...

Read More