Long Drawer Poems

When oppositional cognitive dissonance 
deflects focus from compassion,
I've learned to go back to when I deflected focus from her.
She sends me passive-aggressive messages,
bread crumbs leading back in time 
to where she began to feel alone,
marginalized,
siloed,
anxious,
neglected.

If...

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Heat Lightening
by Michael R. Burch

Each night beneath the elms, we never knew
which lights beyond dark hills might stall, advance,
then lurch into strange headbeams tilted up
like searchlights seeking contact in the distance . . .

Quiescent unions...

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Lake county music company filled with 
slots carney folk real carny folk the little 
pete's illegal gambling road show throughout 
the  Midwest gaming like your idol Frank Peter 
Balistreiri the mad bomber stops Metropolis...

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If ever a moment in real life deserved a romantic, melancholy
backing track, it would have been that one ... we'd spent the
entire afternoon at Ferry Beach, sunning and playing frisbee, I
playing guitar, she practicing her...

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Rian sat puzzling in his suite in the Keep.   His thoughts in disarray,  jumping from one concern to another without any logical order.  He sat before a desk that once was...

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POEMS ABOUT EROS AND CUPID

These are translations of ancient Greek poems about Eros. Eros was the Greek counterpart of the Roman god Cupid. While today we tend to think of Cupid as an angelic cherub...

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Continued from
‘CATONITA STRIKES - PART ONE’
A Freezer Mice adventure


When no-one was around they did the finger-clicking thing
And grew to human size in time for what the day might bring
Their guns were charged and ready and...

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HOW I WOULD DESCRIBE MYSELF

People often say to me 
“What can you tell me about yourself” 
guess it’s my duty to explain to them 
and so I look them in the face and reply 

My...

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*** Notice to the residents of Milton Creek ***

Tom serves as mayor. never complaining, so he gets what he requests 
No blood in his steak, apple pie with sweet cream. Aces cooks that meal
to perfection...

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Unafraid of talisa shaw 
fraud in Tampa 8 22 1972 
back off did you forget 
you cashed a check on 
my behalf for 49thousand 
dollars then withdrew the 
funds to deposit into a 
chase bank...

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Slowly he opened the drawer and looked inside.  Some time had passed since he last gazed upon the cloth that lay there.  Years perhaps.  Yes definitely years.  The blotched rusty brown...

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The Good Girl

Penny has always been a good girl, now she is a good wife. She lives in a good neighborhood, drives a nice car, has two perfect children. Her husband is a doctor and...

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"Welcome to the playground"
'Ring around the roses. Ring around the roses. 
Ring around the roses. Ring around the roses.'

Jack the ripper, he slept with a whore, and became deadly ill 
While his soulmate Jill became...

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Thrice the night—the day!—both fell to sleepless slumber,
But now in Spring, though yet again: The third was three in number. 

I sense a wince remind itself,
Of what it means to be,
Instead to beg for booked...

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Science can’t save you, neither can religion,
at least Popper and Niebuhr, philosophers and poets,
are entertainers, which is why actors and athletes
are paid so much. Thanks for the summaries.
I was teaching Shakespeare’s 92nd ridiculous sonnet
to my...

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Opening the Drawer 
Letting out my there's-my-phone Roar

Destined to live life to the fullest
Relevant determination of the writer flows in my good blood
Envy not, competition - so be it
Amphibious animals corner me as if I'm...

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In a universe far far away
There lived a penguin, whose thoughts did weigh
Heavily on his mind.
He thought of a vast array of things big and small
But there was one facet he thought of most of...

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No one suspected or may have expected
As it was mind-boggling to even conceive
Of events to transpire that night by the fire
On a cold wintry Christmas Eve.

The Elf on the shelf was left by himself
And shenanigans...

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I will never forget the Feast of Tabernacles at Lake Arrowhead
I spent my nights there in our beautiful rented house
With Spy loyally by my side
 He slept on my bed and kept me feeling comfortable...

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I got a text from one of my professors yesterday saying, ‘Please stop by my office at 6 pm tomorrow.’ It didn’t say why. This was the first day after November recess, had I missed...

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I had my plan memorized, 
and I picked the right time.
I walked into the bank 
when there was no line.
I walked up to the teller 
and presented a note.
She hadn’t lived my life, 
you see,...

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(composed in head as woke up)
Mid yawn, self suffocation 
Out of your control 
No fear, you know how it goes
You're better at the end, than at the start
Have faith in the recalibration part 

(Composed in...

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The same black cloud that rested over the field the morning after the mower put out the haystack floated over the tops of the silver-trees on the edges of the rose-garden. Through the silver-trees it...

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It’s been 36 days since you were dethroned 
You were the free-standing house, I was the fist that ripped the power line in half 
You’re the ouija board to my spirits of the past,
You keep...

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Bygone Days
Written: By Tom Wright
4/3/2007

Remember the slogan
 “Haskell is moving, are you pushing?

The railroad depot stands no more
In the spot it occupied for so long.
Instead in it’s space, a Homeland store,
But in my memory it...

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