Long Fistfuls Poems

"The Reptilian Anthropocene"



The Reptilians
war daily 
enrobed in their
stiff distinction suits
rainbow coloured badges 
pinned to their lapels
they beat their breasts 
and oily palms
profiting from all 
the soft-boiled 
foxes on the run
cerebral cortex bound
thinking they are free-willed
and...

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Lorca Translations I

Gacela of the Dark Death
by Federico Garcia Lorca
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I want to sleep the dreamless sleep of apples
far from the bustle of cemeteries.
I want to sleep the dream-filled sleep of...

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There is never an ending
		to the spending
	a world of paper
and plastic to collect
and horde
	clothes
	and cars
	and homes
	and jewelry
	and fine wine
	and paintings
	stocks and bonds
	vacations 
and expectations
entire vocations 
	devoted to 
disguising the numbers
the Caribbean masquerade
to volumes of recorded
purchases...

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My guitar strings in the moonlight should be something beautiful,

but the cold liquid white just makes everything harsher.

–not soft like snow, but deceptively fine –

Light is discordant 

like my clumsy fingers that keep 

mutilating the...

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This is me raping the red of an apple,
the breathy sweetness of the flesh underneath,
a slab of clean, radiant cold filling my mouth. 
I can feel it under my teeth, 
your skin, 
like the calm...

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cold steel …

against my arm
a metal hand in my own
but it’s warm …
purple eyes with glowing fuchsia
pupils that react
but there, in that cyber gaze -
a spark of something ...
more ...
MUCH more …
not just sentience
but a...

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One night as we pulled into the complex
Over the bumpy Colonial Arms exit,
Taj was sitting out on the brick stoop
With a single light blinking over his serious face
His mouth encased in a smoky cloud
And a...

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An expansive view of tumbling sand and lasting memories
make seagulls swoop in broad paintbrush strokes
over brothers bonded by baseball and a broken home.

Within a sandcastle, two boys taste salt on their tongues,
a savory blend of...

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He's a wonder maker-
grapes and figs
and fistfuls of rosemary sprigs
given to guests in a still stormy sky
A welder to solder a sculpture on Sunday
done and attached in a blink of an eye
He'll make you the...

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(Thy lovely lasses unwittingly 
unstintingly unexpectedly 
taught me selflessness)

Every Holiday time each year, 
a rocketing increase asper
doling out Uriah Heap ping 
largesse imposed upon each
citizen banker (coerced, forced, 

induced to buy baubles,
bibelot, curios, et cetera...

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cat man had enough forced isolation

sabbatical dreams after quarantine

entered his hermit cage in seclusion

I need time out from lockdown he promised


they told me of the psycho cat’s demise

but cats have nine lives so I can...

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Her shadow pierces the verdant threads
Secluded within the expanse of changing seasons
Existing within the swaying breeze that trickles 
Crimson sparks flicker like fireflies along the winding ripple

Notes of bright bergamot and dark berries intoxicate her...

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Life's a carnival ride, a bag of barkers and crabs
pinching the mind with pink toys and shiny swag
stuffing your mind with sweet soft fuzzy things
wraps you in heavy chains and a cold nose ring,
leads you...

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All the good in me unlaced I pull what I own across the floor,
books devoured to the spine, impressions the knees of my jeans
have made of kneeling, my ghosts of ghosts, the saint who is...

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How wonderful! God sees our worthless vessels,
yet they carry his message and light into the world.
O wonder! God moves our feet, directs our paths.
Our minds must not hinder nor slack. They must
attack the dust, muddy...

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In the abundance and bounty of our fruited land
my thankful heart overflows with gifts given with love
In the sight of the harvest moons bright helping hand
I feel the root of natures’ essence singing loud from...

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It was a simple night,

she suppressed her own mindset

plunging self-shackled feet into their thoughts,

their eyes,

their thought processes, hoping to retain

some semblance of solace in the familiar cold.



-Reality is an infectious disease-


What she allowed herself to...

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It’s days like this that my mind returns to Raleigh

The pitch, sandy futon, and our intertwined deviant legs

Pushing for a fix

I for one goal, you for another


I would be more aware by the end of...

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Johnny was a lover of God's country
who roamed cherished land because he was free.
A skilled outdoorsman with backcountry charms,
he donned a burlap sack with holes for arms.
To wear rugged shoes was quite a blessing,
for barefoot...

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When I imagined what it would
be like to be a writer, 
I saw myself hunched over a 
typewriter with bourbon on the
rocks sweating a ring onto my desk. 

I could smell the ink on my...

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Rejected
Defected
A hopeless case
Lost, drifting
Vanished without a trace
Sorrowing, woeful
Mired in despair
Anguished
Frustrated 
Tearing out fistfuls of her hair
Lonely, yearning
Trapped in solitude
Hoping for a pitying hand
To raise her up and help her stand
Desperate, on edge
Whirling this way and...

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Let free-fall guide your vertigo
As adrenalin rushes into waterfalls

Eyes and skin tight like water up the nose
Bubbles bursting with lightning strikes then
Soggy silence in turquoise splendour

Watery eyes fade quiet lights and adrenal fatigue
Sinking depths into...

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Kill me if you will, Tear me apart,
Rip open the cords,
That hold closed my heart.
Grab my love by fistfuls,
Take away its air,
Drown me in the river,
If you must then it is fair. 
Stab me, twist...

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Honey Locust Trees, perched precariously on
Ledges lost amid ruptured chasms of evil
Ant hills, protruding fistfuls of grapefruit-sized
Giant ants suffering remnants within sight of 
Chernobyl, in the Ukraine forbidden zone;
Seemingly immune to the poisonous pods;
 Literally...

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One can’t touch
The same water twice
Only once can one 
breathe the same air…

Some things are such
Beyond any price
E’en beyond empty promise
Of wishful prayer…

One cannot see
The Heavens but once
For It changes 
before one’s eyes

As do the...

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