Long Crates Poems

Note to Readers of Previous Versions:
There are so many new vignettes scattered throughout the poem that I hope you will reread the whole thing! There are new GEMS, improvements to previous verses and improved footnotes...

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Starlight and Moonlight II

These are poems about starlight and moonlight, moons and stars, dreams and visions, illuminations and intimations …




Deliver Us...
by Michael R. Burch 

for my mother, Christine Ena Burch

The night is dark and scary—
under...

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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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The noise aboard the motor boat reminds me that I was not alone
The high perspiration smell from the young couple sitting beside me
caused me to remember the green wood’s in Virginia and the squirrels
chasing each...

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I have been trying to pen this verse for the past two weeks but
Someone was standing in my way and my mind went astray
Can’t you see that it is a brand new day?
Winter has subsided...

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Masalembo
2016 © Fleetwood


Blue-green ocean tipped with whitecaps rolling toward the shore
Plane is humming with the pilot talking about life and your ride is there parked on the hill for easy starting next to the palm...

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Migrants on the move from violence
their only possession
breath-space on a smuggler’s boat
secured with back-bent harvests 
in pretzel-bent systems
weight of crates of strawberries 
hoisted on hell-bent backs
just trying to reach Spanish-shores’-east 
from Moroccan beach with a...

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                       I
  “What in carnation is this?”,
A July sun breaks my winter...

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Cluttering above huddled rooftops
Of sprawling villages 
And shy provincial towns;
Rising sharply amidst swooping
Declinations;
Hesitating when gathering at the
Tangled woodland perimeters of
Outlying greenland bounds,
Jostled apex ridges detach among
Themselves...
When habitually roused from early
Mornings
Newly awakened sounds.

Electrical milk floats whir...

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The day is creeping by and the sun is blazing in  the sky
The heat is raging beneath the clouds and it is carrying
a message that is loud.The earth is sinking below my knees
And it...

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Hourglass

Sand falls
Through the glass
Love falls
Within the past
Memories dance
They never last
Head in my hands
As I stare overhead
At the hourglass


Falling Down Stairs

Stairs broken
Wheels unspoken
I fell
Grasping for air
Are you there?

Piano Keys

Playing me
Rhythms dancing free
Clouds in air
Notes tossed in...

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Christopher Cuddy made his home in west Texas,
in the small town of Stone Brook Falls.
He made his living as a realtor,
selling off lots both big and small.

When he was forty-five his father passed,
he had lived...

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(Introductory Note - my daughter (12) wrote this while she was required to sit in a room
with other students and study for the SAT.  She was not happy and expressed her
dissatisfaction in this form....

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Mom of 13 siblings was the last to pass. Behind a hung draped sheet that parted the bedroom she was in, from the living room, she saw Grandpa prepare wooden crates used to pack mangoes,...

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"Every day is a page to write a new story". 
And I have rewritten us every day for the last 20 years
We break up…but we were never really together
We make up…how sweet it is ...but...

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       When the Chinese lady was finished weighing Gus, 
he picked up his backpack and followed her 
to the back alley. 
"Restaurant is full of stupid Americans", she taunted,...

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What softness in silence amidst the cacophony of a spin cycle world war.
Lying next to your glow in sleep's stillness, careful of your bandaged hand.
Watching your breath enter and leave, the rise and fall of...

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I do it for the boys, the girls, men, the women,
plus Allah's unborn children look how I'm living
it's similar to, your situation no money making,
just chips and egg crates in front the Playstation.
Cable's late again...

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One morning Ernie and I awoke to a noisy train yard,
It was that place many hitchers feared known as Chicago.
Since Ernie had traveled there before he warned me,
In that little voice he said don't open...

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When the well-rested rooster woke up at noon, he found himself in the lap
of a gorgeous boy and he was telling his mom with urgency,
"I want this rooster, he can keep the lonely and moody...

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Madmen leaked a rash of sky-blue puddle;
fatally cloistered the hat-flu's hubble -

To wit:

- the half-time half-life smile of she and the other half-wonder of me.

Far far ready to say maybe to love;
moved in half-dream to...

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'Twas the night before Christmas and outside blew a gale
Ol' Santa had a brainwave and on his sleigh rigged a sail
He was preparing for what lay ahead, an arduous task
Then waved goodbye to Mrs Claus...

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Hakim. The Gatekeeper from Esagila.

(A lone voice whispers)

In ancient Babylon, 

I once stood alone and mixed fire
Iron and clay 

All day 

Creating a spell
To entice my only light to come my way 

Sent merchandise of...

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Dropped anchor off the Fever Coast 
‘board a rake-masted schooner
Spooked by Ahab’s ghost. 
Lamps glowered through the yawning blanks
Casting bone-twisted shadows 
Over teakwood planks.
Salt biscuits and Jamaican rum; 
Heard the deep-throated rattle
Of the talking drum.

Count...

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First there was Tiananmen Square,
where tanks flattened people who dared
stand up for their natural rights
against the Socialistic blight.
And then you hit the Falun Gong,
proclaimed that there beliefs were wrong,
force seems your favorite way to quell,
so...

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