Long Counters Poems

"Who Put Luebella down the Wych Elm?"

There are rumours
about me, some 
come seeking me
with their geiger counters
and ouji boards
with their heart 
shaped planchettes

unanswered questions
in the woods, crackling
within the sounds of leaves
invisible dead things speaking 
underfoot...

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Date:  January  2046

8:45 am  in the Damian Domaine 
Some are sleeping some are peeping
What are we eating? Said Molly to
Dolly. "What ever we can?" She replied 
While still sleepy eyed checking
Supplies. So...

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The Picture of Dorian Gray: Paint Me As An Event
The Picture of Dorian Gray, a decent fanciful novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde, published in 1890. The novel, the only one written by Wilde, had...

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It was Christmas Eve and I was at the airport,
Not a soul in sight, almost deserted, it was 10.00 pm,
Only two hours before Christmas day,
Perhaps if I got on a plane, I would see Santa...

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Each year as Christmas rolls around, as I buckle under the pressure and stress of shopping for gifts for people that already  have everything, I find myself remembering that Christmas of 1954.

Dad had joined...

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Unquotable Quotes VIIIL : SEXUAL HARASSMENT* - the feminist kind

(*”aggressive pressure or intimidation”: Is it really “any different” in most cases in the act, judging by Hollywood standards?)

STOP: ARREST ALL GIRLS
 - standing with legs...

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When I Was Born in '45
By Franklin Price
08/08/202

When I was born in '45, was another time and place
Merritt Island, I called home, we had not gone to space
Segregation was the way, we lived back in...

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Rassaphrass’s husband LeRoy went out for garlic bread on a Tuesday.  She ate all the spaghetti and meatballs before he returned, to teach him a lesson, because he took too long.  He brought...

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Kitchen counters alive; the vivid colors of red, green, purple and yellow glass jars. Your garden flourished.
.
Pickled beets mingle boiled eggs; a pretty periwinkle purple.
.
Yellow and purple tinted fingers; dandelions and elderberries distilling; musty aroma...

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Dear Budding Poet . . . 

   My view on modern poetry is that one must read the poets of old, to grasp
the concept of poetic form, word use, tone, imagery.  Then,...

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Awaking blithe each morning,
with eyes upon the World,
I wonder, are we mourning
with ebon flags unfurled –
or are they but a warning,
some draped like snakes and curled,
stray stars and stripes adorning,
sent from the netherworld.

I wander through...

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Marriage has lost its security and the vow, its invincibility
especially in a generation so saga and scandal loving
and a society rarely frowning its face to traditional unfaithfulness.
Setting up the stage for lots of pests 
to...

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Increasing my laughter eyes full of tears invisibly 
Heart shouting help 
Limiting at my ears
Can't be spoken out loud

Faded destiny 
My quest fades in the deep of away
Embellishing my pain with smile
Held contempt of my...

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(Unsigned, Sealed, and Delivered)

Part 1:
Oh I worked several years at Atari (1)
Always thinking, "It's too good to last,"
Bushnell's (2) leaving - hand writing on rampart -
Though momentum would carry us past.

Nolan's (2) vision was not...

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Rick Springfield's Jesse's Girl was playing on the radio,
we were all partying guys and girls out on my patio.
I prayed no one or you would catch me looking your way,
noticing what I was doing for...

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He always dreams big on just about everything
He has been doing this since he was a child
And sometimes his imagination runs wild.

He likes to pull things apart and appear in the dark
and when you miss...

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Wonderworks
by Michael R. Burch

History’s
mysteries
abound
& astound,
found
(profound)
the whole earth ’round,
even if mostly
underground.


The Procrastinator’s Creed
by Michael R. Burch

It’s always, “Tomorrow, I’ll do it.”
Work? I eschew it.
I never collect money I’ve loaned
and the rest of this poem’s been postponed.


WHEN...

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TO MARKET, TO MARKET
As big-box supermarkets became the rage,
most small grocery stores closed down.
And the constancy of change set the stage,
for different looks all around town.

The big new markets were open all day, 
every day...

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.           Oh – the glorious things we saw – shelves full of toys and household goods, glass 
counters with hundreds of bottles of perfume and...

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Dinner was over an hour ago
Counters wiped clean, dishes are washed and dried
I hold my glass up to the light like a color slide,
and see the world, warped, and blurred through the half glass of...

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the footing on the flanks of the Hill of Beans
was worse than he had sussed
that drizzling pale morning
when the Sun was lowest
but beans be damned
and their counters with them
yes I know
a smoky mess
like most of...

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Dinner was over an hour ago
Counters wiped clean, dishes are washed and dried
I hold my glass up to the light like a color slide,
   and see the world, warped, and blurred through the...

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Misshapen limbs of the Palo Verde trees add an artistic touch to the landscape. While 
Honeysuckle twine about the old rail fence and the spiny Ocotillo flash scarlet plumes. 

Mesquite trees, older than the homestead,...

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Just one dusk at the terminus,
the hourglass will shatter.

No more pain,
no more suffering,
just the silence
of a penance without sentence.

My feelings,
a procession of punishments.

My condolences
to all those victims
who drowned their vigilance
in the bowels of negligence.

No allegiance
to...

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oh hello-
my name is frigidair   and I am
a (retro) refrigerator
  for food
I have been in this apartment
      since 1950

a nice kitchen   but I cannot...

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