Long Cummerbund Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch



Negligibles
by Michael R. Burch
 
Show me your most intimate items of apparel:
begin with the hem of your quicksilver slip ...



Negotiables
by Michael R. Burch

Love should be more than the sum of its...

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State of the Art (IV)

These are my "ars poetica" poems about the art and craft of writing poetry. 



Hearthside
by Michael R. Burch

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep...”  — W. ...

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Epigrams

Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It’s not that every leaf must finally fall,
it’s just that we can never catch them all.

Piercing the Shell
by Michael R. Burch

If we strip away all the accouterments of war,
perhaps we'll discover...

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Poems about Poems IV

The Toast
by Michael R. Burch

For longings warmed by tepid suns
(brief lusts that animated clay),
for passions wilted at the bud
and skies grown desolate and gray,
for stars that fell from tinseled heights
and mountains bleak...

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Midnight at Blackfriars 
  
The city spires are hidden, 
It’s getting colder fast, 
It feels as though we might have 
Some snow this month at last. 
The wind sweeps keenly through St. Giles(1) 
The...

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Disintegrated
Red Tears , Create a Black Lake
Where my Heart now swims

You may Kiss your Bride : I raise HER veil, see the essence of my universe
Wrapping my arms around Her; drawing Her closer, We kiss...

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Harvey the Hippo

Harvey is a huge hippopotamus
Who bathes in a bay that is bottomless
HIs mouth is as large as a riverboat barge
And he weighs ten times more than a lot of us

Big Harvey isn’t nasty...

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Part One

                  for E. Balasubramaniam
             ...

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Calling card, heart shaped, scented with strawberry
Dot point offers plant remote scenario seeds
Swirled responses confuse clients, strings tangled
Caught in pitiless draught, swung by fastidious song


Men attempt to measure vapour, mind's desperation 
Digs hungrily into collapsing...

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smoother than most, all moving no boast, shooting a moon to toast, to our beautiful host
revolving no doors, just opportunities score marking the entrance ways pores
balance implored
fracking a lack of communication crashing breaking backs and...

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Griggs’ Bar and Grill
 

In two more hours I’ll have to shower,
shave and coffee-prop my lids
and otherwise prepare for day. It’s 4 a.m.
and now the barkeep, Griggs,
 
is rushing me, the first
to come, the last...

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In two more hours I'll have to shower,
shave and coffee-prop my lids
and otherwise prepare for day. It's 4 a.m.
and now the barkeep, Griggs,

is rushing me, the first 
to come, the last to leave, 
the lad...

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Two fifteen-year-olds stood in a dark hotel parking lot.
Laughing teenagers passed with their dates, to their cars.
The pair stood, awaiting her parents - 
she, in a shiny, pink, satin dress, a corsage,   
and...

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A cummerbund of peach and tangerine
below Persian blue sky now washes pale,
Marsh Harriers and Starlings call, unseen,
competing in bizarre chromatic scales.
Sewn onto the horizon in a hem,
like cardboard cut-outs on a puppet's stage,
black silhouettes of...

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Elegant traditions slowly fade.
A life of service, a worthy trade.
Helping others is its own reward;
inherent virtue can't be ignored.

Wear a tie, tip your hat,
shine your shoe, don a spat.
That's the proper way to do;
adopt a...

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