Long Disadvantage Poems

His glowing golden eyes glistened with a comprehension beyond the mortal condition

A well-toned, tall, and tanned man, who most, not all, would call handsome

A brightly bleached stalactite overbite gleaned between the mean features of an...

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Sonnets XXXIII-XLI

The Folly of Wisdom
by Michael R. Burch

She is wise in the way that children are wise,
looking at me with such knowing, grave eyes
I must bend down to her to understand.
But she only smiles, and...

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TO:  Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner, Chief States Attorney

FROM: Dillen Dye’s Employer

8/16/16

RE: Some apparent non-compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act; common courtesy, civil respect; freely accessible pursuit of health, happiness, and prosperity

I don’t...

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MODERN SONNETS II

I prefer the original definition of the sonnet as a “little song” of indeterminate form and length. These modern sonnets vary from more-or-less traditional to free verse.



In Praise of Meter
by Michael R. Burch

The...

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Christ!
A warparty of 60 Shoshone warriors has just stampeded into the meadow
faces painted red and white for blood and death, all sorts of strange designs,
bows and arrows ready to fly on us, skull breaking cudgels...

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Troop ships loading, crowded docks
Mums and sisters waving off
Go with keepsakes, golden locks
Some men hug while many doff

Eric, soldier single stands
Beryl, lonesome widow cares
Many kissing holding hands
Eric stands and Beryl dares

Bump the soldier, make excuse
Apologizing...

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This little light of mine
I'm gonna let it shine

Wide and longing
for committed dialogue
not surrounded
by elitist debate,

Win/lose games,
Zero-sum asinine assumptions
requiring ego-infested shadows

Resisting win/win opportunities
of healthy
democratic dialogue

Between constituencies,
residents sufficiently humble
to become students together
and unschooled 
unprofessional parents
and not...

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How to attach a shower curtain...

I revisit rather than write from scratch
a poem crafted May twenty third 
two thousand and twenty
since the following words apropos
and amply serve a duplicate purpose
of aforementioned title,
when yours truly enlisted
(before...

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I ask myself a rhetorical question regarding...
the durability, longevity, and tenacity of Homo sapiens,
after screaming headlines report one after another atrocity.

How did the human species manage to survive
with many means
of self destruction at their disposal?

Atomic...

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Let me give the facts straight
I didn't write this poem because I want to entertain you by my fascinating wordplays
I didn't write this poem to bring you to the deepest depth of my emotions
I didn't...

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Organic
zero-waste stream 
permaculturally designed
and cooperatively owned
farms
are no more or less Democratic-Boutique ecopolitics

Than AgriBusiness
extractive anti-ecological 
rather than restorative-ecosystemic therapy,
competitively owned
and Business as Usual capitalist-colonizing designed
multinational conglomerates of anthro-hubris greed,
are no more or less Totalitarian Universal Supremacist...

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How to attach a shower curtain...

Suffering permanent anatomical
disfigurement, nonetheless
maintaining marital bliss
at steep price despite more or less
musculoskeletal dislocation,
I eagerly, readily willingly confess.

Ideal for someone whose height
trends toward above average
unless you don't object tilting
head back in...

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The dilemma of unfolded experience 
Thief of the universal peace
Thunder storm that terrifies the universe
You are the creature that lives invisibly within
The tremendous bug that bugs the planet earth
Uncomfortable but certainly portable to carry
Possibly replaceable...

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As a resident of Schwenksville Boro for five plus years...

Intersection upon adventitious
encounter, when first seed of genocide planted
unsuspecting subsequent rapid usurpation
quickly eradicated rightful breed
of what coalesced into thee Americas. 

I experience stir of echoes haunting
Perkiomen...

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Voting without aggravation...

Otherwise known as
absentee ballot/ mail-in ballot
if ye read no further... please exercise
opportunity to cast ballot
obviously freedom to choose,
but take serious stock of human bondage
(desperately calling out
for their Maugham me)
regarding: economy, integrity, monetary, xyz...

Anyway,...

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Man I'm still standing & demanding though demand is drained
You can look in from outside see but not feel the pain
I’ve been through mad drills harsh anger & changed my face
quitting is Hell my friend...

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considering the inanity of writing a poem
 without  any idea  of a subject
  to write about has not deterred me 
from blindly filling the first sentence with words of little or no...

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to make 2008 great you need to roll away that stone 
that rock that has closed you off and left you feeling all alone
Jesus had been crucified and then placed in a tomb
and on the...

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Waves could wash away certain blue memories but they're too blue. Today I've sat in two places, my heart full of you and how in the night under a half man in the moon too...

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Cracked beer bottles and detached baby rattles in slightly untidy, black plastic wrappers.
No garbage can nor box or bag is exempt from the burrower’s thorough ransack.
Rancid rubbish, rich with unwanted tidbits, 
And the bounty -...

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how much is it worth to you to feel safe and secure?
how much would you spend? how much could you afford?
what is the monetary value that you would place on your life?
how much money would...

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GAINING AND MAINTAINING HER TRUST
                              ...

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I don’t start off thinking it’s a priority to insult 
so if you end up offended it’s probably your fault 

opinions can be devisive 
one will speak and another won’t like it 
offensive views are...

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A cherished childhood spent cocooned in my inward-looking community,
Protected me from the indoctrination of a white-privileged history.
But when I stepped into a world where brown was under-represented
My identity…Was molested.

My speech, skin, hair and dress, seemed...

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I’ve written about the day before Christmas…then added Christmas Day into the mix…
So it only seems appropriate that I write about December 26.

So…happy day after Christmas…like Christmas it’s a day that can enchant and captivate…but...

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