Long Chortling Poems

Fahr an' Ice
by Michael R. Burch

From what I know of death, I'll side with those
who'd like to have a say in how it goes:
just make mine cool, cool rocks (twice drowned in likker),
and real fahr...

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Poems about Things that Break II
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter.
 
 
 
Water and Gold
by Michael R. Burch
 
You came to me as rain breaks on the desert
when every flower...

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Sonnets XXV-XXXII

Archaischer Torso Apollos (“Archaic Torso of Apollo”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We cannot know the beheaded god
nor his eyes' forfeited visions. But still
the figure's trunk glows with the strange vitality
of a...

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MODERN SONNETS II

I prefer the original definition of the sonnet as a “little song” of indeterminate form and length. These modern sonnets vary from more-or-less traditional to free verse.



In Praise of Meter
by Michael R. Burch

The...

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The problem with trying to prove clairaudience, clairsentince, out-of-body, and Near Death Experiences to a Mudblood is not as simple
as it could have been.
Is it because Para-science is totally unsubstantiated?
Not in MY family.
Scientifically un-sound?
Sure, by...

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“Barking Up the Wrong Tree” 

ghost gums
shed their bark 
the min-min 
makes good use of it
papyrus, soft enough to 
imprint and write
thoughts, like the 
ripening welts of 
green ants 
small bites sting
subcutaneous and 
meridional, 
terra...

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“The Apocrypha of Familiars” 

Wings hover 
light luminescent
revelling sprites dark pearls
Corvidae shades
of a family 

highly functioning
dysfunctional plural
morphing unobserved
perceived non-unique 
spiralling into shape

more black and grey
than white spills 
from their eyes
light from their shining 
hidden away

intelligence...

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Picturebook Princess

for Keira

We had a special visitor.
Our world became suddenly brighter.
She was such a charmer!
Such a delighter! 

With her sparkly diamond slippers
and the way her whole being glows,
Keira’s a picturebook princess
from the points of her...

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“Sacred Lakes”



There is magic 
in your shaman bones
stories shaken like strange mojo 
busy under cover of autumn leaves 
turning burnished topaz gold 
idling unrushed roll over

in honeyed slumber

turning back hands
to face a time of 
blushing...

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"The Vanilla Ice Cream Knights and The Raspberry Queen"



"You’ve been spooning
too much Vanilla Icecream”, 
she advised the buffoon

all the feathery self-blustering chirpers 
parted way, she had loaded guns
she positively glided into the room

“Diamonds my old...

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Remember watching the clouds breathe,
In endless sees of make-believe,
Erasing the summer blue, azure in fleeting
Moments, silencing the music of birdsong,
Softly chortling in rhythms, 
Hearts warmed by the presence of miracles,
Promising the wind will blow away,
Every...

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POEMS ABOUT SCIENCE 3: EVOLUTION



Peers
by Michael R. Burch

These thoughts are alien, as through green slime
smeared on some lab tech’s brilliant slide, I grope,
positioning my bright oscilloscope
for better vantage, though I cannot see,
but only peer, as...

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These are poems about animals by Michael R. Burch

Double Limerick: The Platypus
by Michael R. Burch

The platypus, myopic,
is ungainly, not erotic.
His feet for bed
are over-webbed,
and what of his proboscis?

The platypus, though, is eager
although his means are...

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Stimulated off of asphyxiation 
Chortling silence kills me alive
Ignoring the pain of your rain
I’m your everything
I’m nothing without you

Love is where home is
Joy is where home is
Spiraling, mad as a hornet once again
Spinning, sad cuz...

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"Ransom"




Held to ransom 
words inject your mind
pierce your skin
drawn backwards 
you transcend, 
you look within
a bloodied mind
the numbness melts
inconsequential ignobles
and dreary misfortune
a polar ice cap 
lying cold on stony heart
rescinds


Blue blood bleeds Red
Mystery Girl
Implodes your...

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''The South Side of Chicago'' by David Hart

The South Side of Chicago
Whence those childhood years were spent
Skip-walking upon grimacing cracked sidewalks
Hastening through filth floored garbage canned
 flanked alleyways to--

The forlorn house--windows weeping chrystalline shards--
 cascading...

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“The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.”
- J.M. Barrie, The Little White Bird

Robins, wrens, sparrows,
quivering, yet silent, still
on limbs...

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“Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn.” -Elizabeth Lawrence


Still, soft colors
like blushing roses,
dew kissed, dancing quietly,
in the gentle wind –
rustling like the songbirds,
bursting with...

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“Nobody likes a clown at midnight.”       Stephen King


CLOWN AT THE ABYSS


Darkroom abscessed 
with neon blush and black-blood —
sunken eyes look surprised
to find oneself in a dank dungeon.
Fecal stench, not...

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Massive, gray, these leaden waves
bear their unchanging burden—
the sameness of each day to day

while the wind seems to struggle to say
something half-submerged planks at the mouth of the bay
might nuzzle limp seaweed to understand.

Now collapsing...

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(Played to the tune, “When Sly Calls,”
by Michael Franks)

When Trump tweets,
Mo’ scowls furrow

When Trump tweets,
the scandals grow

As rumors shake,
idle sits the Boss
Bankrupt morality
is the grifter cost

When Trump tweets,
the rubles spin

When Trump tweets,
the dictators win

Decorum falls,
indecency...

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Deafening Silence
By Sy Roth

Are they going to die like that 
Buried under the silt of time with it all unresolved?
Are they a ribonucleic disaster, a broken string of DNA 
Deposited in a weary, weeping womb?...

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Dear Governor Newsom:


What a moronic, Fascist leader, you are!
Controller of COVID~
Hear me chortling  from afar!
You have in no way flattened, the curve,
You lying moron, you are totally absurd!

California has had cases, but none like 
New...

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It comes in beta waves,
	         an electro-magnetic tone
The blu-ray timbre
	channel surf creep
in your sleep
Then it’s rapid eye movement gone

This disembodied voice
whispers robo-call suggestively,
“Vote for American czar me”

Saying,...

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Traveling across a countryfied road.
Large hollows furbished of  loose
pebbles and twisted roots ascend
from a prominent blue spruce.

Rotting posts, a barbed wired
fence, and pair of Mustangs
racing 'cross a
green pasture toward 
ole' woebegone stable,
as  a...

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