Long Champagne Poems

Rejection Slips 2

The Shape of Mourning
by Michael R. Burch
 
The shape of mourning
is an oiled creel
shining with unuse,
 
the bolt of cold steel
on a locker
shielding memory,

the monthly penance
of flowers,
the annual wake,
 
the face in the...

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Lozenge
by Michael R. Burch

When I was closest to love, it did not seem
real at all, but a thing of such tenuous sweetness
it might dissolve in my mouth
like a lozenge of sugar.

When I held you in...

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While family Mingled with one 
Another and strangers the party flowed 
Smoothly. Music was enjoyed.
Everybody indulged. With a little 
Champagne some wine and juice.
The bar also served smoothies.
Adults mingled. Delilah Mallory 
Mother Daughtry and Amaliah...

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Molly and Dolly were in their 
New getaway room on the top 
Floor listening to music.
While Damian spent time with 
The kids in the backyard. He
Wanted to install a pool for the
Youngest children, then switch...

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Set upon the new world stage within the burning fires of hell. Silently posed factions of the elite, suppress the true inherit of Mother Earth. The meek children bending over for millennium, taken spankings of...

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*Image of Many Meanings by KWC.

Likeness ssenekiL: Part 1

(HOMONYMS: Homophones & Homographs)

He'll heal his heel.
They sow so they sew.
His aide aid with an ade.
You saw a ewe eat a yew.
I ate on the ait eight...

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The Trial.

 

Arthur, Sammy, Davis, Junior, Stevie Wonder, Bob, Mick, Sue, Carver. You are being charged with the partial demolition of a listed building. Endangering the life of one, Mavis Stepney. How do you plead.

Not...

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Justin Von Depathos strode across the ballroom floor 
To sit with Carlton Vishizwa and Charlotte Genivieve, 
While I watched, in silent fascination, from the door,
The “major players” waltzing ‘round the room that Friday eve.

Thurston Beaumont...

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For the past thirty seven years, living for me was knowing that I do not know
I have been yearning for what I do not have a name for
The knowledge of the presence of this nameless,...

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In the intimate interlace of chance and fate, in the ultimate interplay of time and place, and with the consummate checkmate of my human dignity, all that is -- is over, in the stormy, swarming...

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"The White Lady of Skipsea"


Last night I dreamt 
I dreamed of you
a kind of dream 
within a dream

Diaphanous, 
my soul escaped, 
this firmament,
my immaculate heart
held hands, my fingers 
did entwine with 
handsome Morpheus

Crystal radiate
twin gossamer...

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I'm lownly and have nobody and nothing 
You had me wondering where you've been...singing and crying and yelling and silently dying, wingless and willing to fly away and bring some happiness in this world of...

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There was a twenty minute lull
Before the paramedics arrived to
Remove Greatgrand Dad's 
corpse. When the paramedics 
Arrived they examed Greatgrand 
And confirmed the family's dread.
 Damian and CJ accompanied 
The body to the Hospital. While
Julius...

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That soft-spoken Sovereign commands a big stick, 
runs the world into ruins, once our bailiwick.
If asked why, He grins grimly, pale lips slightly pursed:
"Vindication? Straightforward: It's Me and Me First" 

(To mesmerise people He needed...

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~A To Z An Amazing Couple~

A is for Allow me to write a poem about my best friends 
love affair with an army man, she was 35 years old he was 
the same age living...

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THE RISING HILLS, THE SLOPES, TO QUENCH MY THIRST.
In the last century, the hopes were little,
Grasses they collected, yellow bananas, they peeled,
To move up the slopes, preparation was fore filled,
Oh the grower of banana trees,
To...

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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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The sun was rising over Milton Creek, heralding the start of a new day
Two new residents were due in town, on the noon train from Santa Fe
William (Bill) and Sara Baker, both renowned as skilled...

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Under the midnight moon, romance waited
its true heart and beauty, with love baited
for dawning gleam across powdered snow
and she her handsome soldier to soon show
for his appearance was far overdue
she could hear his parting words,"...

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'Twas the night before Christmas and it was heavily snowing
The windows in the house rattled with the wind that was blowing
Santa looked out through the window and it filled him with dread
He was in two...

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As soon as I heard 
You were the First African American Male
To win the Pulitzer prize for Poetry
I wanted to run out and celebrate
I wanted to wake up Hughes and Dunbar
And Baraka and say we...

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The birth of a kid is just an adventure
Which has its start about nine months before 
After an instant of joy or of  venture,

When seed of man is reaching up its score
In the twisty...

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It was the summer of 2014, I was just about to turn 13, spending June of summer vacation with my Grandmère, in Paris. Tonight, we’re at a fundraising benefit for African relief (it’s always *something*)....

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It is a cold road to my mother’s house.
I have driven it hundreds of times and each time it seems to get colder.
I have cranked up the heat, yet the cold is like a knife...

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I WILL NOT GO ASTRAY


I had fired off curses, you’d forever been strong.
Like a crapshoot endeavor of a serious wrong.
I know i’ll reap my sowing, so change of practice is best.
So I read biblical scripture,...

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