Long Estranged Poems

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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I was listening to Cornell West,
who described our catastrophic tolerance of disvalues for others,
situations we would never tolerate for ourselves,
disvalues like homelessness and hunger,
but also like random violence, 
abuse and neglect,
lack of caring,
as a "conspiracy"...

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World War II Poems and Holocaust Poems - IV - Primo Levi

Shema
by Primo Levi
translation by Michael R. Burch

You who live secure
in your comfortable houses, 
who return each evening to find
warm food, 
welcoming faces...

consider whether this...

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Dear Siblings Three,

I was reading a story
in which some siblings became estranged
after their parents died,
while others moved toward greater solidarity.

This is a variation on a diaspora story.
But, here growing physical distance
is seen more as a...

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The mute old drunk had gotten lucky the day before - a stranger had taken pity on him at the bridge, (under which he and many other homeless people lived), and stopped to give him...

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The man that I’d looked up to most when I was just a kid...that I’d preferred to my own dad...of whom I was ashamed...
Often prompted speculation he - without my knowing - likely was my...

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I don’t feel good at this
I’m feeling so hopeless
I need some happiness
I’m feeling dread instead
I’ve been consuming sorrowful bread
I’ve been feeling rather dead

I want to repent of being sinful
I want to repent of being resentful
I...

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In a sudden nodding shift,
I was lifted into the air by the hard wings of the Devil
His putrid stench waking me from what seemed all dream
And upon a balcony of singed vine and blackened soot,
He...

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A man who lacks a sleep schedule.
In a home that houses not only him
But his very own mother
His daughter who comes equipped with
Her very own mother too

Honey girl rises with the sun and sets with...

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I'm done with this I've had enough of this/
Slushy trip since Hell Paso son just quit
This empty pursuit
Of letting the past keep livin' through you/
Go ahead and equip the damn truth
It is that simple to...

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Abandoned as a child believed to be no more than five, the matron of the orphans home, was...other than my mom...
The first to have to face the task of tending to my welfare, and started...

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It was tranquil sultry August, and the birds were singing,
The insects were all buzzing, and toad frogs were springing.

And I was deep in the mountains, taking snapshots of nature;
For I felt I was a good...

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The world is a clown looking at you up and down
The world is a clown; the plane is about to touchdown
Madness in the East, madness in the west
And the north and the south are gallivanting...

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Though I'm ashamed to say it now, I never took conservation seriously,
Just living life as if nothing else mattered, full of wonted complacency.

I would hear intense talk of the climate, recycling and global warming,
But I...

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Back approximately half my life ago
dissociative disorder 
if qualified to self diagnose 
mein kampf psychological state...

I lacked emotions where others concerned.

That refrain replayed itself,
when wife picked up 
(like a broken record), 
where parents left off
before...

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When at five-thirty
In the rubbed-eye haziness
Of ferreting lonesome night walks
The camera-eye refugee
Asleep in the half wakefulness
Of the hour
Peers out of his high turbanned sockets:
Hyde Park's through road links
London's diurnally estranged couple -
The Arch and Gate.

...

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I was a professional flutist, and performed in orchestras and symphonies,
To express the sheer joy of living, like the birds sing to summer's breeze.

Becoming accomplished took many years, and I'd played since childhood,
As a late...

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This Time Last Month

A customer
Opens door
Bell lets out two rings
That smell of books
Telescopes
Globes and other things.

Travel guides
Atlases
Maps strewn everywhere
Customer
Breaks fourth wall
Speaks as if you're there:


"I got upset when I first heard 
this shop was closing...

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Regarding merit: absent, missing, void
Of all redeeming qualities, save one,
The apple of His eye, His "very good.”
Was He, in pleasant garden, much annoyed
When they His one divine decree did shun
To taste forbidden fruit because they...

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Learning  How To Live...Courtesy, 
Sans Priceless Paternal Experiences
Bequeathed To This Papa From Precious Progeny

The greatest gift cherished, garnered, lamented...,
yet simultaneously recognized as utmost prized
constitutes mine declaration, that both benevolent
daughters (now metaphorically inflight) took wing
to...

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How few people know in this world, 
That the ones who are beaten
Find ways to take rage out on others,
All frequently fruit of one tree!

But just for this reason I chose
To forgo my own children
Preferring...

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Looking back

Honestly and wholeheartedly

Having to assess evaluate

My life up until this very moment and point

In time I have lived this far

I would have to judge myself

In two completely different parts

The old me today and and...

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April 30 In Search of America 1975 – Hitch hiking Tales

When I was young and foolish
Broke and stubborn 
I hitchhiked across the USA 

Started in Salt Lake City 
Where my greyhound bus pass 
Was stolen...

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It’s not even lyrics that I’m writing 
It’s the feelings that I’m fighting 
When they striking like lightning 
Nightmares so realistically frightening 
I’m struggling to wake up
I can’t wake up!
Oh God I can’t wake up!
I’m...

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I’m the donkey tied with ropes and 
being sodomised in front of the 
church tree,
While the choir chants praise to the 
god who bled, cried and died for all 
innocent creatures like me.

I’m the roasted...

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