Long Chipped Poems

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...

Read More

This is the 2nd THIRD of my 3-part poem - see Mark Stellinga on Poetry Soup for the other 2 THIRDS - couldn't be helped.



“What about neighbors,” I carefully pried...“do any of them check on...

Read More

Here's the deal, folks...

   This is, as indicated, the 3rd THIRD of this fairly lengthy poem. Due to Poetry Soup's file-size limitations, this piece had to be posted in 3 parts. 
 ...

Read More

WINTER, 1948 [40 Saxton Street]

for W.W

The winter nights that pass now
are so unlike the winter nights
that passed before, that I often
struggle back in those suspended moments
when sleep grapples for a hold,
to once again hear the...

Read More

“Before The Firing Squad”



the firing squad 
came dressed
in faux smiles

the intervention cake 
was spoon fed, like honey,
by mother superior

to the lesser bee,
with self-righteous
magnanimity

she wore the badge
Devil’s Advocate, proudly,
without any clear authority

casting bloodied 
nasturtiums around the...

Read More

[Note: You will see in the work below connections to other poems I have posted here.  Those poems are tangents to this poem that more completely tell the tale of rise, pride, hubris, fall,...

Read More

As I empty a bag and look over the donations in it
I think, “Geezus why; not even I would willingly take any of this!
If I didn’t work here taking donations, I’d throw it all in...

Read More

Are you sitting comfortably, children?
Because it's a long tale.....
Then I shall begin.

Arthur was a Mason, which in case you hadn't known
is a man who sands and chisels, making shapes from out of stone.
From animals to...

Read More

silent issues

humanity
and the hypocrisy
of soft tissues

openly
running out of paper rolls
secretly
disgrace on humanity's cheeks silently rolls

there's a monument
on earth
to the unknown soldier

there's a monument
in the firmaments
to the unknown child 

a well known secret

a hood by night...

Read More

I am home ...

oh, my heart
      pray, hush its cadence
         for the sacred sake of unsated thirst
   beg its thrums...

Read More

Life 101 was taught to me in an old mansion in inner-city Chicago.                      ...

Read More

A tree in love

By the old road, before it meets a widened way
 in a nearby stands two trees close together
 we can see they are related 
yes, mother and daughter
The mother, although taller, leans...

Read More

You’re the headless horseman running on half a heart 
You shouldn’t know where to go but you just do 
And you’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached to you 
Lost puzzle pieces, collecting dust,...

Read More

He’s just a dog, a mongrel pup that fitted in me hand,
short haired, tan and white, with needs of high demand,
he’s whingy and he’s whiny, I s’pose he misses Mum,
but now his Mum and Dad...

Read More

It was early nineteen thirty four
The world was set to change
Europe was on fire
It was time to rearrange

Poland was the first stop
The German Army on the move
So we left for America
I hope you did approve

You...

Read More

I feel invisible. And Christmas feels like another terror crisis for families. I design 
every city, feel no pity for this except, and  can't travel and have romantic sex in the 
cities with my...

Read More

(Historical train-ride on the first Transcontinental Railroad in 1870 from Omaha to Ogden aboard the Union Pacific Railroad)     © 2009 (Jim Sularz)

Wyoming winds blow like a hurricane,
the flimsy bridge sways to...

Read More

I was fed a brain scorpion tonight.
Small sting...  but a cute glimmer of the things to come.
Hypodermic needle pinning point blank on my frontal lobes-  
and other places deep and hidden between the...

Read More

Living Life

Now I'm living life where life tried to live me.
I'm looking to my future 'cause my past tried to kill me.
Poetry, a strong part of my soul.
The story of my life, it's must be...

Read More

Veiled Love

The true depths of selfishness 
I had never touched
Until I met you
Never feeling its cuts, 
I could have never knew
Just how bladed it was
Victim after victim a glutenous lust
Seeming to serve you all that...

Read More

There was a man who survived through 
everything against his will while he was alive.

One day this man’s ghost arose, walked out of his grave and followed his footmarks on a rugged trail, hard and...

Read More

She looked peaceful in her lavender dress-
as I suppose she was. Eyes closed as if lost
in childhood dreams, small hands folded across her chest.
Her glasses resting beside her auburn strands,
lips pleading for color, her face...

Read More

Looking into the crystal mirror
The girl sees a hollow form in front of her
She is beautiful, with nothing out of place
But is filled with nothing

Eyes of glass blink in union
They are lifeless
Filled with no emotion
Looking...

Read More

These are the best sports poems by Michael R. Burch, Part III

For Jack Nicklaus, at the 1987 Open
by Michael R. Burch

When you were young
every putt was makeable
and every dream remarkable; 
the stars were unmistakable
you set...

Read More

FREE VERSE VI

Reason Without Rhyme
by Michael R. Burch

I used to be averse
to free verse,
but now I admit
YOUR rhyming is WORSE!

But alas, in the end,
it’s all the same:
all verse is unpaid
and a crying shame.



What the Poet...

Read More