Long Corseted Poems

A mirror never reveals  
fallen secrets sewn with soulful sequins;  
time unmutes raven melodies within,  
tawny tunes of truth~
   I once spoke in colorful dialects.  
Now, I trust just...

Read More

POEMS FOR POETS X

US Verse, after Auden
by Michael R. Burch

“Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me
The entirely beautiful.”

Verse has small value in our Unisphere,
nor is it fit for windy revelation.
It cannot legislate less...

Read More

Poems for Poets VII



Sweenies (or Swine-ies) Among the Nightingales
by Michael R. Burch

(for the Corseted Ones and the Erratics)

Open yourself to words, and if they come,
be glad the stone-tongued apes are stricken dumb
by anything like music;...

Read More

“since thoughts speak in past tenses,
drop mind, rely on senses,
embracing and releasing,
pain pangs and pleasure pleasing” ~ Unseeking Seeker 

The sun
w a n e s into the saline swell,
and the ether
undresses corseted ruminations,
while heart follows...

Read More

As I wandered about the lush lawn
In the gazing ball I glimpsed
A breath-taking young woman with a touch of innocence
In her soulful, violet eyes.

I was mesmerized by her beauty
And I had to look up to...

Read More

In the tremble of the evening and the rustle of the unfinished letter,
My aged hand, shrouded in the mist of memories, writes the last farewell,
Under the blue cloak of celestial silence, waiting for the silent...

Read More

The year was 1680 and I was travelling,
            I sat in the carriage looking out the window;
The coachman was driving the horses quickly,
 ...

Read More

Slow motion agonised gravel crunch

Picks and flicks sharp stones under tyres

Glinted handle clicked forward introduces

Arresting view of her beauty polished 

Soft and ready, yet bristled. This is her day 

Ivory plumes escape cancels rear wheel...

Read More

Corsets My Waist
In my corset I 
Feel thin and lean
My waist is constricted
Without any pain

Down to a 22 from 
A  26 inch waist
Inch by inch as I
 am tightly laced

Around my body it
Is snug...

Read More

After a long walk
I transcribed myself into piano music.
All night a harpsichord
had been jangling nerves,
rattling the same baroque concerto
over and over again.

I count I-100, then start over
counting and walking,
a clockwork organ
self-winding, always
pushing a moment before...

Read More

Plump-cheeked and bow-lipped, the stalwart mother sits reading,
corseted in her close-kept role, gathering the feminine
for like to like is drawn, a blossom-pressed, Alice sits lazing.

Straight-laced, as the time, the stripped couch holds her life's calling
falsely...

Read More

orsets My Waist
In my corset I 
Feel thin and lean
My waist is constricted
Without any pain

Down to a 22 from 
A  26 inch waist
Inch by inch as I
 am tightly laced

Around my body it
Is snug...

Read More

The faintness of flight overwhelms me
boxed in caged, corseted, in a cattle car of the air
pristine bells and whistles cajole the herd
as the breath is cycled and recycled through the 
bellows of plasticine and metal
germs...

Read More

The summer was lush with death,
it turned the hare into a twirling dervish,
the raccoon to a pantomime villain,
forced mice
to sing in the jaws of predators.

The woods are bare now,
trees rattle,
birds clatter twiggy wings,
briar tangles
in the...

Read More

    Faint recognition; 
     ambiance, for hire,
    this job is precarious,
     but can she steal the show?
    Holding...

Read More

The redwood forest has been caged, 
corseted its skirt hemmed
Who would think there'd come an age
when trees where kept enclosed

And so I cry and so it goes.
as we bid good bye to all of those.

Seeing...

Read More

Intricately fragile, embracing her curves, 
She silently breathes in this womb,
This womb where she is a prey to its wants, 
Its black silken webbing costume,

That clenches her neck, runs down her back, 
Is tattooed the...

Read More

A little girl’s heart, wrapped in sweet tarts,
And pressed with messages of love
And belonging.
BE MINE. FRIENDS FOREVER. I LOVE YOU.
Wrapped in chenille,
Sleeping in a pink and powder blue room.

Chestnut hair spread, silken, upon white sheets.
Encircled...

Read More

RAVENous

Wickedly,
dressed in black satin,
corseted with passerine-ego —
she dares
the dawn to interrupt her feast,
afterall, SHE is the Queen!
beheading of the smallest of things,
the nibble of opportunity.

Vast is she, the moonlit sentinel,
fearsome in flight as her ebony...

Read More

My girls are of my meraki

      My little women plump and primped
      Bulging curvy corseted crimped

They never fail to catch an eye

   ...

Read More