Long Distended Poems

Come Down
by Michael R. Burch

for Harold Bloom

Come down, O, come down
from your high mountain tower.
How coldly the wind blows,
how late this chill hour ...

and I cannot wait
for a meteor shower
to show you the time
must be...

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What Good Are Our Tears?
by Michael R. Burch

What good are our tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is our concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm benevolence...

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Senator Fuller,
a permaculture designer
turned architect of exterior landscapes
then public sector architect
of EarthShip cooperative interior landscapes,
is with us today
to tell us about why he supports Sanders,
at this point in time,
although he is making no commitments about...

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THIS WORLD OF DEW

This world? 
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last? 
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before...

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Regret
by Michael R. Burch

Regret,
a bitter
ache to bear . . .

once starlight
languished
in your hair . . .

a shining there
as brief
as rare.

Regret . . .
a pain
I chose to bear . . .

unleash
the torrent
of your hair . ....

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“I don't know anything about that.  I just do what I must.”
Bréagán's smile was sad but understanding.  He knew what it was like to be pushed to do what seemed impossible.  He...

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Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume ...

Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in...

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Uplifted his mouth from wild and fierce meal
That sinner, it furbishing at the hair
Of head on back of which he had to steal.

Then started: “You want I renew and share
Desperate pain which is pressing my...

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After four weeks...
A cruel infection, poor Ted, now prevents
you receiving Mummy's milk; nourishment
vital for the whole of you. We long for
you to breathe, to cry, to see. The waiting
of all who hope for you, so...

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Back to you Billy, for ways I whiled away herding ennui

Ah...a flood of memories wash over
this anointed Goatama Boo Da,
whose respected G.O.A.T status
among generic green acres, 
which swathed across Highland Manor 
analogous to petty coat...

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I’m stealing through a twilit realm, the ancient pale of Whereis,
passing chambers of an Heiress
(though no need to feel embarrassed)
through a magic mystic mirror hanging curtainless.

A glimpse near naked alleyways (denuded by the moon) ex-
poses...

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And there the story might have ended 
But the bite on Suzanne's thumb 
Throbbed and became distended, 
'I must say, I feel a little rum', 
she said and lay down on her bed, 
but as...

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"Aurora Spills"


Aurora spills like a waterfall
light from the eyes 
saltwater tears
crocodilian
scaled in the weight of worth
a drop in the ocean of fate
breaks the seaweed fields of stories 
they wave her in 
rippling time away
fingertips dance...

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wishing he had sung his prayers last night
from both ends to the middle
fell to the ground in adoration
tore a wake through the ink stains
but not from satisfaction
plastic Jesus hold my head
a round of applause for...

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Bowing to the East,
a sacred obligation,
comforting
and curious forehead down
to kiss this humble ground
of ego's straight supremacy

Including fat white men 
buttocks up
and yintegrity open to receive

To imagine Allah's horniest Tao
amid straightest men
together worshiping Earth's political ground
of...

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 Continued from Part 1


The trees, they hang in time and space around me –
trees, which in time before had swayed,
so gently tugged by ocean breezes,
trees, which in time before were lightly lit
with emerald tinted...

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Sparks of golden quarks
Amazing particles of heart
Pyrotechnic shower
Too fine 
Almost from cloud nine
Rise from the articulation-flood
In the fulfilled flow of fascinated blood
As effusive praise in Aha and Wows
The moment a poet finished an Urdu shayari...

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(any resemblance to the following and 
living persons iz purely coincidental)

Family, friends, and
     strangers didst weep
when my brutally
     murdered gagged and
     bound distended...

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WHO AM I WHAT AM I

Who am i, what am i, whats my place
Who is my GOD am i important
does being black mean am inferior...
am i any less a mortal..
does being black determine
whats between my...

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Open hearts to victims of neglect
In communities immunized from kindness
Hardened by design to the core to select
The affluent whose blindness and fondness for coldness and heartlessness

Shunt aside concerns of the bottom of the pyramid
Whose human...

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high priority insecurity
gastro-growling, 
a peckish fling
in the food desert - 
not dessert - desert
this lip service 
don't a mouth fill

maybe one of five
on the sleigh's edge 
gazing at the growling wolf 
of slowly going down,
ground...

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let's speak of the unspeakable
the horrid, heartless, maybe headless tale

let's speak of small children, 
gaunt with indifference, both of and for
the sunken eyes, the distended belly
the insects hovering about...waiting

let's speak of hospital corridors
hushed conversations with...

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Before dimensional
discontinuous investment returns
of MotherLand
there was a water womb
of continuous gifts
growing through primal matriarchal relationship
of deep gifting vulnerability.

Intimate wonder comes prior to thoughts
of becoming more deeply connected,
invested,
in both natural and spiritual ways.

Warm water womb
births landscapes
for...

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Seeking Redemption Beyond The Horizon


          While my mind ventures to unravel the origins of human enmities
          Craves...

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I WEEP FOR THE DEEPLY DEPRIVED

Weep for the waifs in a world we call the third
The woeful ones with bellies empty of nourishment
They are trapped while Americans remain free as a bird
Children chided by a...

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