Long Fingernails Poems

I love you only because I love you
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I love you only because I love you;
I am torn between loving and not loving you,
Between apathy and desire.
My heart vacillates...

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Sonnet LXXXI-LXXXIX

Day, and Night
by Michael R. Burch

The moon exposes pockmarked scars of craters;
her visage, veiled by willows, palely looms.
And we who rise each day to grind a living,
dream each scented night of such perfumes
as drew...

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Disability, Illness and Fundamentalism

My brother died of Cystic Fibrosis, 
When I was twelve and he fourteen, 
It took away his ambitions, 
To study at Oxford - the pipe organ’s steam. 

I understand being born with...

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as the PROPHETS of profits, WE lead and WE’re fair
while WE’re living the life of the poor BILLIONAIRE
– silver yachts, pearly castles, cash (plenty to spare) –
with the world on OUR backs... ah! the burdens...

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Sitting on the beach,
As dusk falls upon the end of shore,
I look at the lighthouse,
As I see a faint figure,
Looking beyond the sea.
She holds her chest,
As if she is holding a necklace.
She waits for her...

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A Statue Speaks

The morning takes it's first breath of daylight
Exhaling the sunrise that fills the sky with colored 
brilliance.                ...

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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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Death Comes

All arguments and denials were fruitless;
The deceased fell prey to the Master Thief.

The “One” whose icy-cold touch is . . .
Just Too Cold to Resist! . . . They Say!

No worries though . ....

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I
The beggar outside the supermarket
You swore was picked up later
In a flashy car
Sat there in the sun for 8 hours
While you pissed & moaned
All the way home
To your bookless
Mausoleum 
With a chlorinated pool
Where one day...

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God created hands for building things. Sometimes before you build something, you must first destroy something else.

Wildfires are never supposed to be put out. Their sole purpose is to burn the entire forest to the...

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Scrounging for boogers wrought my damn nostrils nearly to bust 

My humblest apology if the following account
doth gross thee out forlorn childhood of mine 
found further ostracization of me tantamount
being shipped off to  a...

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In her soul she exposes naked memories and lust for life

          A rebel conceived in a flash of pure passion

      ...

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As the man on the roof, took two steps towards the edge, he was unexpectedly stopped by the sound of a bright and familiar voice, down below.
     "I thought you were...

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A Conversation With Little Red Riding Hood

[I’ve always loved the fairy tale, “Little Red Riding Hood”, and I’ve used it to teach many lessons, especially on perspective and morals in my classroom, so this contest...

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Poetry, paint and the birth of a world
in a whirl the Dark and the Light do swirl
yet obey the dawn and dusk I do unfurl
above the alter I, the Almighty
forge form from their spectral sexuality,...

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When we fight in silence, like titans abound by egos
An eager poet overcome by words.
A beautiful model delicate as raindrops
When the silence in the room is as thick as our nostalgia
Wanting to hold each other but...

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she is everything you have seen in the movies
crayola hair
velvet dress
sugar in her veins
tears glued to her face
she fingerpaints the kitchen walls like a little girl and tapes their polaroids to every surface

he is every...

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In some strange blue green aurora borealis kind of way
my days are an aged book 
I smell of leather bindings 
spine dented
I noticed my own fingernails
tuck them under
Try not to get distracted by vanity

The O'clock...

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The destruction of the cell in the dialectic of negativity
Shooting arrows of light towards the body of the self
Solar processes and nuclear fusion
Sustainable Amazonian Euterpe precatoria trees
Color in the Persuasion of Sensibility
Structure of the ceiling...

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Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow?

The following extrapolated 
thought thread exercised,
NOT utilized to intimate 
how Fats Domino belied,
and wowed a crowded house ass-sized.

As a former ace procrastinator, I abhor
putting off doing...

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"RED"


Listen he said, “How many ways can you see Red?”

“Well”, she sighed, “Let’s start with Cherry Pie, 
oozing it’s juices all over your chin
and plump moist Red Raspberries staining your sheets, then again
what about Claret...

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As I turn to see a dark silhouette, I realize it is you. Your sultry form is illuminated by the moonlight glowing through the window shrouded by tightly drawn curtains. 
I become instantly aroused. Your...

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Twenty-three chromosomes from my mother
Twenty-three chromosomes from my father
Already, I feel loved
Three weeks now and my heart is beating
My blood is pumping
My brain is dividing into three primary sections
Already, I am alive
Four weeks now and...

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Her lips caress another cigarette
A fading belle looking for love
The smoke veils a creature of habit
Chasing a young girls dream

But this Genie found the palace doors locked 
Her youth distilled into a bottle of gin
Diluted...

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Eyes so dark, almost the color of an unending abyss, many have swam in their view but none that she will miss
Not the way that she misses the one, the one that made her shine,...

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