Long Complicity Poems

First they came for the Muslims

after Martin Niemoller

First they came for the Muslims
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Muslim.

Then they came for the homosexuals
and I did not speak out
because I was...

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Various Heresies 2

You
by Michael R. Burch

For thirty years You have not spoken to me;
I heard the dull hollow echo of silence
as though strange communion between us.

For thirty years You would not open to me;
You remained...

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Remembering that day in May - when I became corporate prey
On this unforgettable day - an innocent child was thrown away
Last night as I lay in bed - I read the news here's what it...

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My wounded heart drinks deep from the rotting gut of misery,
Humanity vomits its relics onto the oozing tiles of the real.
I see kids chewing syringes like candy canes,
Their innocence smashed, face down on the concrete...

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Introduction: once again I incorporate 
my trademark penchant 
to fabricate fictitiously
portions of the following poetic endeavor
can you care to 
discern fact from fiction?

Attempts at lifelong friendships and holy matrimony...

Shot thru with figuratively cankerous nub,
cuz yours...

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Finding the plot

Of lost innocence
engrained in untold memories

The silenced absence 
in past present unspoken
stories well hidden
and therefore evoking
my past and my future
not mine and mine

Quite a mind-field
mines bombs blazing
artillery burning houses

My antecedent shelter of
generational tapestry
knotted...

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Hiroshima Poems 2

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.
-Michael R. Burch, "Epitaph for a Child of Hiroshima"



The intense heat and light of the Hiroshima...

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“Was gesagt werden muss” (“What must be said”)
by Gunter Grass
translation by Michael R. Burch

Why have I remained silent, so long,
failing to mention something openly practiced
in war games which now threaten to leave us
merely meaningless footnotes?

Someone’s...

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When I came upon the ancient temple
it was in a howling storm of a sand
arid dust blinding me to everything I am
 
I had staggered across the thirsting deserts
while dreaming of the water
I held within my...

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King Cephissus lured Liriope
.  To bathe and frolic in his stream
   Entrapping her she lost all hope
   His favours now she must redeem 
   Her ardent struggles came...

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"If they so persecuted me they will also persecute you..."John 15:20

Q: If they call Donald Trump and his followers fascists and extremists
for being in the way of their Marxist Liberal New World Order what will
they...

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To understand poetry you must read poetry
   By External Journalist

It is said that a teacher from the countryside once asked Mario Quintana:
 What should I read to understand Shakespeare?
And the poet answered her...

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As mortal veils dissolved, our bodies merged in the ossuary's somber symphonies, two mistress awakened by the velvet-wrapped cadavers, our disinvested hands tracing syllabic patterns across the olive verdure of our skin, as maelstroms of...

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Was my life just a wish
I hid between the pages of survival

And even though the Universal source of all
Granted me this gift

This singular precious life
Did I search instead to be the worthiness of heaven

Did I...

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Shame


When word had spread of His arrest, I left
Bethesda, passed five porticoes and came
Eventually upon the Roman fortress;
My curiosity overriding shame. 

Six trials they say He underwent, stood still
With arms behind Him bound, yet He...

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Listen up, because we're diving deep
Into the mind where corruption sleeps
It's not just out there, it's in here too
In the choices we make, in what we do

Power whispers, "Just a little more"
Greed opens up an...

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Heroes,  
To some people a killer can be called Hero
To other people a defender of their rights is called Hero. 
There are many untold true histories as 
some people wanted to be celebrated. 
Leopard...

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In the heart of inner wanderings hides, alas, a tormented soul,
Wilted by anguishes woven at the edge of the mind, where the thread breaks.
In verses, the silhouette of an overwhelming sadness takes shape, a landscape...

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i danced in bubbling innocence,
but shrouded with tainted boundaries-
no more simplicity
without redemption;
my soul complicity,
my essence like dying memories

i strike a fever like waves of lightning,
the storm never ceases
even in autumn breezes
i find this affair of...

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Helplessness immobilizes yours truly,
I genuinely agitate
permanently lasting indelible impact deux
biological offspring unfairly bore brunt,
compliantly, complicity, and complimentary
I avidly, doggedly, instinctively helped create

subsequently, unintentionally, or willingly
unpleasantly affected as adults facilitate
learned behaviors to navigate
their respective independent lives
both...

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You can feel them move through streets
Emblazoned with sirens' primary colors,
A swatch of fjord's colonial flagship hues
Left to slap in the wind of reorderd forms
Until sheared into confetti strips. Scripts 
Writ into a code are...

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Ah! Yes! Yes! You say my poetry
reminds you of a great musician;
the ear to feel and a heart
to impart—so the conductor
motions his vessels to sail:
a pianissimo or great crescendo!
I think that breeze, that wind
that went...

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I'm from a town called Misery 
Just north of the state Complicity 
Now I have no value in self-worth
Aroused in my sorrows my hurts
That was the old me
Changed my mindset now I see
Man's religion was...

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amid shackles and ropes 
with fire burning 
hatred into eyes 
a child stood 
without understanding 

seeing tears wet 
on mama's cheeks
and papa's goodness 
spread hatefully 
upon tracks
displayed as flags 
of their righteousness

worth descended
into slavery
of white...

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Seen life compared to so many things.
I decided to give it a shot.
My turn for an allegory or simile

Funny, when I sat at the table everyone was shocked.
I wasn't expected though the game had just...

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