Long Freshman year Poems

We’re (Lisa and I) back in Athens Georgia (hometown USA), where it’s the halcyon days of summer. The south used to be the home of summer heat - not anymore. Now everyone has their little...

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Dear Sarah the Sorceress
Dear Sarah my Sorceress
Dear Selena...
I really need to talk to you
I really need a word with you
but one word isn't going to do it for me
and all my words seem to be...

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Will wonders never cease!?

Alternately titled: Last of the fluff
belonging to a Mohican
Norwegian bachelor farmer wannabe.

Any resemblance between said unnamed individual
and living persons purely coincidental.

Scads of decades back in the day,
not since this sexagenarian baby boomer
happened...

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I don’t remember my first introduction to the idea of same sex couples. I don’t remember the first time I was told it was a “bad” thing.
All I remember is how it felt each time...

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Is it time again
Is this another day again
where I sit up once more
waste my fingers to the bone
to describe my grievance with the Sorceress
named Sarah...
No...not this time
Is it time again
is this another day when
I sit...

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Don’t know when it started….freshman year?
I look in the mirror
	See….fat
		Hanging
			Bulges
				UGLY 
UGLY UGLY UGLY UGLY UGLY UGLY UGLY 
		UGLY
Remembering the food….calories….sugar….fat 
Passing my lips….
		Leading down my throat
			Into my stomach….onto my hips….my face…my stomach…my arms…my legs
			UGLY
Next day,...

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Chapter 3: College Preparation

My freshman year started quite smooth
Touch football broke my leg
My luck we had a tennis coach,
That brought things down a peg!

My algebra was like a dream,
Played tennis, found it fun,
And Science Fairs...

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When I drove away from the family farm
to embrace my freshman year
at the University of Michigan
in Vietnam-era 1970,

I was planning on majoring in political science
which later turned into a double major
in communication theory
and positive neuro-psychology

Persuasion,
cognitive/affective...

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I was in second grade when I started comparing myself to other girls.
I asked myself, “why am i not her?” “why are my thighs bigger?” “why can’t i have her blonde hair that seems to...

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Dear Girl,
Please go away.

You don’t love me,
You ‘luv’ me,
Because the latter is only a ghost of the first.
Don’t worry though,
I don’t hate you for it,
I only h8 you!

You don’t need me anyway,
Please go on,
You’ve got...

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Enclosed around parental safeguard
my personhood was exposed to freedom 
bound by subjection to authorities
which my mind never questioned
since I acknowledged such as the ideal… 

Then my sense of freedom was gripped with skepticism 
when attacked...

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We’re (my pose is gathered this Saturday morning because I made a pancake and bacon breakfast) listening to a Britney Spears song, off one of Leong’s playlists. “I remember when I was about 8,” I...

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I was born 6 lbs. 9 oz. with blond hair and blue eyes. 
I was also born gay
I am anorexic. 
And you would think people would ridicule me for this instead of me being gay.
...

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This has more similarities to a story than a poem.

November 2010 - I was in second grade when I started feeling drowsy and weak. I would come home with unexplained bruises, and neither me nor...

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EARLY POEMS XXI - JUVENILIA

Dance With Me
by Michael R. Burch

(circa age 18)

Dance with me
to the fiddles’ plaintive harmonies.
Enchantingly,
each highstrung string,
each yearning key,
each a thread within the threnody,
bids us, "Waltz!"
then sets us free
to wander, dancing aimlessly.

Let...

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I will sometimes be asked how it came about
that my children have one set of grandparents,
and I know just what you are thinking now,
but hear me out, an all of this will make sense.

I’m explaining...

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Its sundown, the day’s been reduced to a crack of lavender and fiery pinks along the Massif des Maures mountains. This evening we’re sipping cocktails at “Les Toits,” the Hôtel de Paris’ rooftop restaurant. The...

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Boyd and I graduated from high school 
Then college roommates; we thought that was cool  
Texas A and M became our new home 
Bunk beds in a dorm room without any phone

It’s a military...

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In my younger years, I was one of the most serious persons to be found.                    ...

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i treated your loss just like death
grieving for you as i did my mother
i still wonder if the universe
wasn't teaching me a lesson in karma
for you were a personification of heaven
which surely meant there would...

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It’s May 18th, 2022. I’m poised, alone, heart pounding, in front of my laptop, waiting for courage, my finger hovering over the return key, like a child hoping the timing of my keystroke will bring...

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My freshman year is ending and I’m as busy as a one-armed juggler. Of course covid is back. 
It reoccurs at the worst times, like a movie slasher long thought dead.

When we have something scheduled...

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Dear stupid diary,

I woke up, had my cup of coffee, fixed my hair and painted my face. Pretty normal morning, thought I’d call a friend see if they wanted to meet up or maybe go...

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Verse 4
The night of betrayal was dark and a scar upon the heart of the dragon.  The girl that wanted to be like her sister had finally betrayed him a third time.  The...

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summer before freshman year
stargazing from the muddy banks
of a class celebratory bonfire
across the roaring river

multiple guitar melodies
competing with the sounds
of joyous screaming and laughter
as well as the usual night life

ever the outsider
all alone in the...

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