Long Flails Poems

Pied tidings of suburbian 
Magpies,
Squawking and squabbling,
Quarreling ferociously among 
Themselves - 
Rush to steal
From off the beleaguered bird 
tables,
To the annoyance of all concerned,
A much begrudged meal;
Before scurrying away into 
Unfrequented woodlands,
Marooned like islands in...

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A midnight shriek or sudden bang
Disrupts the thread of tales,
Entangled in unconscious mind
With sounds of lashing flails.

Wherefrom it comes, whither it goes?
I threw my eyes up there,
The eerie void soon called me up
To trudge down...

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*
The heart may fall in love unwillfully
so, in a script will lie my paramour.
Oh manic quest, I've sworn to set you free
to let the ink's imagination soar.
I’ve found a place to court a writer’s muse;
this...

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Daylight Savings Time – March 13th,   2022

A long time graduate courtesy 
Hard Knocks alum,
once again yours truly 
posts reasonable rhyme 
about shortest day of the year.

Two o'clock Ante Meridiem 
nostri Jesu Christi 
hour...

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The story goes that men have only one thing on their mind
But down throughout the ages there are men far more refined 
Sometimes man is called upon to do the righteous thing
And carry out the...

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These are the best sports poems by Michael R. Burch, Part II

The Locker
by Michael R. Burch

All the dull hollow clamor has died
and what was contained,
removed,
reproved
adulation or sentiment,
left with the pungent darkness
as remembered as the sudden...

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UNQUOTABLE QUOTES: XLV - Tongue teasing epigrams

A stitch in time can save an arranged marriage and stave off a family feud, not to mention everlasting vendettas.
Still waters run deep in sleep.
When the hens begin to...

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tight thoughts toil,
as threads in head uncoil
ideas plaited, intent's tug
escort through dilate pupils.
umbrella lashes shady look
was all it took-
inception outspooked
at artful spirit's raid, 
inkling's snapline birth
twine in tensile mind, 
sprinkling notion's seeds.
Small things become divine.

...

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Written: February 02, 2025, for contest Sponsored by: Sara Jama

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Brushing butter onto pastries,
squeezing...

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Canto I: The Wicked
______

Wither and tremble awash at sea oh woe
Woe is he, terror from sights even blessed would flee
Serenades of night washed over him into the wrong
Dark tides so high and undertow pulls so...

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GTF

Wizened skin like burnished leather
Thin, grey and long, disheveled hair
Clear, sharp blue eyes that seem to stare
Through sun scorched face, alert, aware

A ‘lived-In’ face that’s so expressive
Tales he tells read like a missive
His arms and...

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Written: March 2nd, 2024
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Wingbeats on warm whisper wavelength
wasteland, waves of wasabi writhe
with wilting, whimpering, witless wring...

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Duellem (The Duel)
by Charles Baudelaire
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Two combatants charged! Their fearsome swords
brightened the air with fiery sparks and blood.
Their clashing blades clinked odd serenades,
reminding us: youth's inspired by overloud love.
But now their...

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In a shroud  of darkness 
Her  stallion  neighs , leading death  to 
where death preys. 
As black as the night  as cruel  as the day 
Her aura speaking , in different  shades of 
grey 
Steadying...

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November 13th 2017 
Happy 83rd birthday to thy cremated mom

Harriet Harris fought tooth and nail
Mother succumbed 
to terminal illness without fail 
Ovarian/ Uterine Cancer to no avail
hosted by death feasted fancy 
at Oyster Bay metastasized...

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Bleeding Paloma

He sees her in the tree, high up
Hidden among the mango leaves
Her egg-shell coloring peer through
The dark green.  He scatters the 
Seeds upon the earth and waits 
Until she flitters down, at first
Untrusting...

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Seahorses...Why?


Dear Mother Nature woke one day,
   and looked around with a sly smile,
surveyed her Earth, both land, and sea,
   then paused to think for quite a while.

She beamed with joy with...

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Written: May 9th 2024

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Opacity prevails in the chasm...

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You say you love me but you’re not
You say you’re going to fight and give it all you got
You say you find it hard to breathe
You say you’re mad at me but I’m the one...

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Molly

Molly raves again
At all the things unseen
Their voices chambered tight
In her restless dreams…

She bites her nails in worry
Until they start to bleed
She looks around in fear
She is a soul in need…

Her hair is a mess
From...

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Electricity crackling,
dancing in the sky above
And some dead thing moves
				imperceptibly, 
down inside the castle below
A mad scientist cackling, 
howls at the midnight moon with glee
Devilish delight ...
Abominable works being done
in the dead of night
Obscure in...

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I could never explain how I feel
On air, waves of sounds escaping what I could no longer hear
Aggravation lingers on the tongue
How it burns, perpetually, embedding anger on taste buds
I will remember the taste of...

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Progressive letters talk and reel
Tempting minds at the brink of fruition
Imaginative portents come to being
Through the exchange quality of mental travel
Ideas fashion acclaim and source the brain
Stimulating fervor glows mutant at souls pestering

But when boundaries...

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Pushed up from stomach's abyssmal pit
Choked off cries, constraint deformed
Packed with panic's punches
Right here where words are formed
Throat cords tightly gripped
Resistance rules my holding back
While mouth stammers mind blown shock
Fear sped thoughts fly blindly
Wild-eyed in...

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Its fluttering wings as it flits round the lamp
That glows in the street that is misty and damp
Clack like a skeletal vampire in flight
And cast evil shadows like bats in the night

Tonight in the alleyways,...

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