Long Eerily Poems

"The Payload" 

The payload 
came crashing down
like rain expelled
from the fat belly 
of a ruinous pregnant cloud 
bilious with buxom promise

it came crashing down 
like school fish released 
from the tight confines
of a course rope...

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“Forever”



When The Terrors came,
The Uncontrollable Ones,
she closed her eyes
and listened for the notes
her mother had planted
amongst the deep blues,
beds of Forget-Me-Nots,
she followed the 
labyrinthine trail 
and through a gate unhinged,
it would seem destroyed, thrown aside,
she...

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Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds



Flying
by Michael R. Burch

I shall rise
and try the bloody wings of thought
ten thousand times
before I fly...

and then I'll sleep
and waste ten thousand nights
before I dream;

but when at last...
I soar the...

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Chinese Poets: English Translations

These are modern English translations of poems by some of the greatest Chinese poets of all time, including Du Fu, Huang O, Li Bai, Li Ching-jau, Li Qingzhao, Po Chu-I, Tzu Yeh,...

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"Artificial Iris"


Orwell was lurking in the background, somewhere;
the dream was eerily familiar, 
the words and their meanings, read in Syntax,
once read between pages of hardcopy in school 
were aptly ignored - 

however, 
our Overlords were...

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Of Ghosts and fiends in Twilight, Cont.


A thought flashed in my mind from the old tales told
The lore of the beast and I had felt his foul breath
I had seconds to act or be devoured...

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Galloping hooves broke morn's peace in Soup Creek's Main Street
When Jimmy Smith rode in from Bar 20 his face white as a sheet
He stopped at Sheriff Koplins office and banged heavily on the door 
"What's...

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"Kaleidoscope" 

They say another
wrote the story, not I.
that I, mere I,
having little experience, shy 
and far removed from 
such an alien world,
would not possess the knowledge
of such terrible and ruthless, lusty 
characters of strong will;...

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Diaspora Dwellings

On my way into our sanctuary
this past Sunday morning
a woman I had met in choir
was strangely inclined
to share her family history.

Her dad came over from Ireland
because he wanted better business opportunities
for his healthy future.

Here...

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As I ascend the podium, a predator of piquant pontifications, my eyes ravage the assemblage of adversaries, their countenances a canvas of consternation and morbid fascination. The atmosphere is heavy with the miasma of malignant...

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We've been taught the terror of triumph from where the heart looks...
General Caesar Sir, 9th Recon reports that Pompeius Magnus has fled by sea to Egypt,
also, the body of Captain Crastinus has been laid on...

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Will you, won’t you join the dance,
We like to dance here every night,
Moving slowly at the speed of light.
Won’t you give yourself half a chance,
Even two left feet are alright.

The Bipolar Coaster is an excellent...

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The sun, resplendent in its blazing might,
Burns fiercely o'er a barren, lifeless waste,
A desert dry and vast where earth is scorched
By searing radiation, deathly bright.
No sign of life but one lone phoenix flies,
Soaring precarious, close...

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During a bad storm one night I turned on my television
Grey and black flickering lines appeared, obscuring my vision
I went outside and saw the aerial had bent over but it would have to wait
Tomorrow I'd...

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Giant balls of tumbleweed were blowing down the main street
And off the Sierra Nevada mountains there blew a fine sleet
It was late December in the old Western town of Milton Creek
Preparations were under way for...

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Not too long ago
                         I had a  beautiful friend
 ...

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HIROSHIMA
I remember it well, that first day in Hell
             So long ago, I know

As the sirens sounded our Yankee foe
Decided that now his...

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4/8/24

Aww shucks
Still at the crux
In a state of flux
With reality still out of touch
I've been puzzled much
So I smoke a couple blunts
That's a double dutch
From dawn to dusk
I turned myself into a husk
Just so I...

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WOMB OF ALL BEGINNINGS


In the delicious womb of all beginnings 
we learnt to giggle electrons
to bear all things 
without nusturtiums, pink lilies or doughnuts 
warm gurglings of God’s dream for us

Morning glories were waiting 
deep...

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Afterwards.

Didn’t we once used to smile and laugh?
I can see that we seemed to be happy 
As I look at an old photograph.
But now our mouths
Seem almost paralysed
Or are tight and grim.
I vaguely recall a...

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I may as well concede the obvious. I was an incorrigible workaholic,
Who was always so driven to succeed, that working replaced all frolic.

I was the co-owner of a business, along with my lifelong best friend.
Together...

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The name of my sidekick was Benjamin, a fellow church member
An ornery, brown haired boy who had nothing in common with me
Save for his sudden sense of adventure and exploration
He asked me, “Laura? Have you...

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A cold dark yellow unhallowed moon smiles beguilingly
In the pitch-black starless and cold empty night sky 
Suckling upon the blood and the very life force of 
Pure innocence, light, and goodness . . . .

Fear...

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Written: April, 16, 2025, for contest Sponsored by: Kai Michael Neumann

          **************************

From a deep weariness of the soul 
to the discomfort embedded in our bones. ...

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As innocence receives the mark of man
a war is waged in silent turpitude.
It seeps within the solace of the land
erasing all in morbid solitude.
For any souls so deemed to be unfit
are subjects for eradication’s storm,
‘tis...

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