Long Cargo Poems

The Amistad Mutiny

Slavery, a dirty word no matter how it’s pronounced:
Abducted and herded to the slave fortress of Lomboko1 for trade.
To be tossed in chains below deck on the Portuguese ship Tecora,2
Sailing the Atlantic Middle...

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Impossible mission to captcha infinitesimal moment

alternately titled: tick tock runneth amuck
seconds elapse imperceptibly 
leaving me dumbstruck,
how quickly fleeting tempus fugit; 
ofttimes imagined as time thief.

Hence following vignette: quiet as a mouse lurks the time thief...

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Poems about Poems V

Distances
by Michael R. Burch

There is a small cleanness about her,
as though she has always just been washed,
and there is a dull obedience to convention
in her accommodating slenderness
as she feints at her salad.

She...

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Here's the scoop, friends...
   This is, as indicated, the 1st THIRD of this fairly lengthy poem. The 2nd and 3rd parts had to be posted separately due to Poetry Soup's file-size limitations. No...

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It was Christmas Eve and I was at the airport,
Not a soul in sight, almost deserted, it was 10.00 pm,
Only two hours before Christmas day,
Perhaps if I got on a plane, I would see Santa...

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Within the frame a sepia scene
a dusty porch   a rickety chair   
the fabric of your dusky face creased
with ceaseless sunbaked woes
your old pair of getaway feet gives 
a different walk of...

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Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV Part Two
                 II

The first signs reek tell-tale
Buffer-to-buffer...

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Tim’s father had been a refugee once he put down his fight and his gun

The story is that he embarked on the very last ship leaving East Prussia

Under siege tanks and bombs from above fireworks...

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Date 2008 these are Damian's 
Formative days. Damian Hakim 
Was born 2001 August 10th.
8lbs 7oz. Big baby boy! Damian 
Lived in west Virginia with his
Mother Lucinda, father Carter 
Hakim and his siblings. Now 2008
Young Damian...

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As I thought upon the coming of February, the month designated as Black History Month, I began to think upon potential ancestors of long long ago. My imagination got the best of me, and this...

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Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV
 Part One                     ...

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Injustice is just an inconvenience until it is proven...
When the sun hit their helmets it startled the very souls of the natives
a signal upon their eyes that spoke like a siren of ill prophecy to...

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Ma,
Why do I need to apostrophize you? Why did you flew away into the celestial regions so earlier? Is it because you are from a land where ‘twenty is plenty’ for women? And hence, ignoring...

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Nylon waste is often akin to a brushed out stable, manger, or stall. But brushing the carpet is often a resemblance of a swirling cloud of dust and tobacco shards and tobacco shards are not...

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Hey bruh, 
haven’t you heard,
ain’t you read the news?
The White House is gonna eradicate 
the fear infested inner city blues
That Trump fella says,
he’s got his poison pen ready to use
He says black folks got nothing...

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Our lives and our time
Fired useless
Into the air
Toy cap gun shots
Those winter palaces unstormed
No tax offices ransacked
Where is utopia I asked
And no-one knew
They looked at me with pity
As if I still talked
To an imaginary friend
At...

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It is not just Santa Claus who we meet in cold December— 
There is “Carolina,” and she’s the beauty of a winter picture perfect 
With luscious long coal black curly hair far down on her...

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In the year ninteen eighty one on the nineteenth day of December
A day the town of Mousehole in Cornwall, will always remember
An R.N.L.I. Watson class wooden lifeboat, the 'Solomon Browne'
Launched from Penlee lifeboat station in...

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A country of dreams has burst its rainbow at all ragged seams

In a state of affairs illusion of fusion and widespread delusion

The constitution hallucinates as night settles scores of deceit

Bereavement takes its toll in anger...

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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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Sonnets V-IX



Afterglow
by Michael R. Burch

The night is full of stars. Which still exist?
Before time ends, perhaps one day we’ll know.
For now I hold your fingers to my lips
and feel their pulse... warm, palpable and slow...

once...

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I understand that my values have changed. In ways to frame a point we can't help complain. Distract a conscience with tasks to entertain. As well as moments uncaptured to drive insane.

Now sorry I know...

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Wow, look, we can save $500!

I wonder how much we must invest
to generate this savings.

Oh, I see.
We need only buy a new or used car,
which, of course, as everyone knows,
is something that we truly truly...

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I OPENED A DOOR TO THE QUANTUM DOT WORLD 
OF INORGANIC ORGANIC MATERIALS.
ALSO KNOWN AS SYNTHETIC BEINGS. PART HUMAN 
PART MACHINE. ONE MIGHT EVEN SAY CYBORG.

CONTROLLED BY FREQUENCIES RADIATING FROM 
WHAT APPEARS TO BE 6G...

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commissioning and attempted escape
“Son of Amittai, to Nineveh, go
And tell them of their great impending woe;
Their evil, like a stench, has come to me.”

But Jonah ran; he traveled down to Joppa.
(Wait, Jonah who? Oh, Amittai’s...

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