Long Cramping 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...

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My appreciation Francis Crasto for allowing me to collaborate with you as your 'psychiatrist' on ‘A MAN UNDER STRESS’- A great sequel to your recent poem on your page ‘DIG DEEP’. 



Hello Francis, how are...

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The old man turned his head, his ear pointing towards the door. Through the mundane sounds of everyday life he heard a faint song. It wasn’t clear, barley noticeable but the music was there playing...

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A single branch, clawed and pecked, fickle and straining,
Lonely Nestling and father, paw and peck at their home
Lonely branch, spasms in the wind
Nestling and father paw and peck, yearn and whimper
These Flightless Birds, on a...

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Why are you acting so bold towards me?
I thought we could end up being friends.
I didn’t realize that my actions towards you would cause our friendship to end.

In the moments that existed before hand,
I assumed...

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Metaphors and similes flow freely from my pen 
when I am scripting and scribing in poetic verse.
Across the width of pale parchment pages 
the nib of my feathered pen continues to traverse.
Ink courses fathoms deep...

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Fallen



Dear Friend

It is always hard, knowing where or how to begin
you are so far away
and words cannot replace your faces
I miss you with these words
they do not replace your talk back
those expression you make when...

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I wish I could change it, truly I do. I just don't know if I can tip toe around the fact that u placed me in a box and buried in the back of ur...

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Cheap wine dimmed in the candle light thinking my life's bleak like her dreams keep cramping my sleep and I've had it with uncleaned teeth clamping when they bite like a dog with a lock...

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Tight Spaces 

I wriggle through the tight spaces, 
moving between these fussy wise cracks,
all in forward motion, my forward goal,
moving towards a light beyond, way up ahead.
A dimming glow, like a watery eye,
lubricating and easing...

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The court was a refuge for my thoughts and aspirations
An explosion of apprehensive sensations
Breathing in the moment which I couldn’t fathom
My own doubts being my one and only phantom
Told by the media that I didn’t...

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There is a girl who comes to school everyday with a smile on her face. The way she looks 
happy during school in front of her friends and classmates. Who becomes quiet when ever 
she...

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Step into the world of a crazy
Marshmallows aren't what they seem
 clouds in 3d float in the sky
giving the impression that evil  will happen.
Flat on ur back legs apart
Whose is it gonna be you...

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The escape commenced.
The endless drive from middleclass suburbia
ala Levittown; across hill and dale,
packed in a 1947 black beauty
of a Lincoln Continental; to the land of Peyton Place 
and Steven King; Maine.

Lemon up and tangerine down,...

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Phantom feelings...
stinging prickly reminders
that missing attachments
were parts of real healing.

Painful loss replays
trauma bond tricks and treats. 
Days of death danced a two-step
with hot held hope
Two faced masking for supply. 

Divine love's inculcation
Came from a different...

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AT THREE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING 

trucks toil the city’s streets, 
a minuet of practiced precision, 
to the pulsating rhythm, 
to the incessant beat. 

they parade and pause, 
they roll-on. stop. 
roll-on. stop. roll-on. stop....

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everynight haunted by the pictures
my life now a repeat of the scriptures
close my eyes its too real im fallin deeper
emotions too famailar to me 
panicing, heart off beat
nauseous, cramping, can't even eat
its too real it...

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When dulled down shock painfully became
a pickaxe ache behind shimmering eyes,
the bludgeoning screen hammered memory cells
repeatedly, over and over.
Tears exploded, soft rain dampened flame,
the grumbling dust cloud debris disguised
broken hearts bursting in agonised swells
searching for...

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Pain in the ass devoid of dreck
inapropos poetic material what the heck
more unbearable than crick in neck
shiver me timbers, I feel like total wreck
the (see) Edmund Fitzgerald, si?.

Spasmodic cramping imposed
automatic rhyming abbreviation
comeuppance (analogous to daggers
stabbing...

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This was the year for an abundance of plums,
the fruitlets spared by the absence of frost.
  The tree was leaning, the branches drooping
  with a curtain of fruit downward plunging.
Such was the challenge...

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There is a certain pride in my heart, 
Deep in the gut of my soul, 
And in every moving cell working for the other
That preaches and presses in a padded jail
Where no other living soul...

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I Can't Wait For Death

And finally take one last breath
where hands of Seth
Thomas no longer clock
freed at last from cataclysmic aftershock
reverberating thru every baited cell
after quaking mine flinty bedrock
well nigh since birth zapping bloodstock,

an existence...

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Pondering up on hidden thoughts I relax in the balcony,
recollecting those crafted priceless moments 
whence you had cast a spell~was immersed in severe infatuation.
Always lending me your broad shoulders,pampering 
me to rest my crown.
When am...

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You had us doing hard labor
no shade, not enough water 
Desert heat, 98 degrees
I thought you were smarter. 
I did you a favor, got bruises and grief
Cramp in my muscles 
You saw me as cheap....

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Hark! Hear the bells ringing out,		
	On this chilly night of liveliness. 
	All around me, life continues on,
	As if I do not matter, I am worthless.

	Festivities and such continue, 
	Children and couples glance.
	Shops have their doors...

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