Long Flinching Poems

His glowing golden eyes glistened with a comprehension beyond the mortal condition

A well-toned, tall, and tanned man, who most, not all, would call handsome

A brightly bleached stalactite overbite gleaned between the mean features of an...

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I Know The Truth
by Marina Tsvetaeva
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I know the truth?abandon lesser truths!
There's no need for anyone living to struggle!
See? Evening falls, night quickly descends!
So why the useless disputes?generals, poets, lovers?

The wind...

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I melt into the plural sky
its rippling tableaus of tomorrow
underneath open light waves 
see-saws the labyrinth
like Delphi tendrils crossing channels 
all the changing faces played
automatic, embedded in misty consort 
with Hyde-Lees and Yeats 
love-crushed oracles
ghostwriting...

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When I was sixteen
I wanted Robert Kennedy's life,
although I didn't know about his time squandered
in staffing McCarthyism's
Make America as Grotesque as Possible campaign,

Which would have given me pause
in that comparatively naive age
of green longing for...

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Angles of Mercy
By
Kevin L Fairbrother

There is not to many of us that can say that the owe their existence on this earth to a Native in a Foreign country, in my case I can say...

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The Square Root of Beiruit 
 
Ten men bending while theyre pretending to be near the ending
A capitalist nightmare glares like rotten fruit
The squate root of Beiruit
No it isn’t fair, so they’ll start to loot
 
The soldiers are...

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Silently he sat in darkness, flinching at the sight of light.
Which created a glow reflecting on his balding head.
His cold glare did not help my nerves, 
so I simply stood there observing his silence.

His philosopher...

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Sometimes pandemic people share
pieces of our unspeakable personal story

That no health care worker,
sex therapist player,
or green resonant systems organizer
wants to hear,
much less smell,
or touch,
or deeply feel...

I flinch, sometimes.

Wince.

Maybe flirt with longer-term
dissociation,
to protect myself
from suicide
to protect...

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POEMS ABOUT OPHELIA

Ophélie (“Ophelia”)
by Arthur Rimbaud
translation by Michael R. Burch

On pitiless black waves unsinking stars abide
while pale Ophelia, a lethargic lily, drifts by.
Here, tangled in her veils, she floats on the tide.
Far-off, in the woods,...

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He sits quietly in the corner of the room
and dabs his face removing the blood that
still gently trickles down his cheek. Flinching 
from the pain he tries to be more careful.
He wants to ask but...

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"Ransom"




Held to ransom 
words inject your mind
pierce your skin
drawn backwards 
you transcend, 
you look within
a bloodied mind
the numbness melts
inconsequential ignobles
and dreary misfortune
a polar ice cap 
lying cold on stony heart
rescinds


Blue blood bleeds Red
Mystery Girl
Implodes your...

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One time, when I was about
eight or nine, 
Poppa climbed up onto the roof.
He was fixing something
(I don't remember what)
but he called me up.
He wanted me to see 
the sunset
uninterrupted by the houses
and trees of...

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Again, the great slow rolling rumble
The gray shield of the sky shakes above.

     It comes as does some giant, or prowling beast of such kind
     Black, swollen...

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When you find your early your already much to late all this time now you over compensate
A rush towards the front so we can crawl to the back always flinching from the timely attack
anticapation explodes...

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You told me I was nothing, weak and small,
That without you, I'd have no life at all.
You twisted my mind, made me believe,
That love was control, that I couldn’t leave. 

You silenced my doubts, drowned...

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The small boy falls and hurts his elbow and knees,
and cries quietly on the inside,
because there is no one there to feel his pain,
or give him comfort,
for the small boy is 86 years old.

His skin...

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I have ghosts who live inside me and refuse to move out
They tear me apart piece by piece with every passing moment, as I try not to remain silent anymore but my cries are muffled...

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(continued)
                        V

Has it not occurred to you how I sat with you
dear...

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A bright star shimmers over once still seas:
                           ...

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(writing for the voice of my son who has terminal illness)

Reality is searingly intimate. But they say anguish,
woes and sadness are emotions best shared.
I am not saying I enjoy lamenting on them or heaping
tribulations on...

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Lurid looks have been thrown at me
Deadly daggers sent to pierce my heart
Why do some insist on acting beastly 
waging war in attempts to tear me apart?
How long can I go on pretending I'm not...

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I've gone through some emotional, 
Spiritual and mentally challenging days
And I've learned to keep my faith in God 
In the face of my dismay
I know hard times will always come
And that there will be rain
But...

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Cold shower today - (early afternoon)
September eighth two thousand
and nineteen more challenging than June
dog days of summer test tolerance
to feel alive and bark at the moon

hypothetically imagining myself
alone in the (suburban) wilderness
fabricating, envisioning crossing pontoon
bridge...

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You ask me- why it is, that I flinch ?
With every sudden movement , that I don't see coming.
 Like I expect to be hit .
It's a leftover reaction . 
Like a residual tic.
A predetermined...

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This world of ours is not always a good place
behind closed doors so many terrible things occur.
Hidden from plain sight some suffer endless torture
by the very ones who should love them the most.
Terrible things done...

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