Long Fringed Poems

These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems about the earth, climate change, global warming, extinction events, and mankind's role on an endangered world ...



Polish
by Michael R. Burch

Your fingers end in talons?
the ones you trim to...

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IT’S A MAD WORLD In a Lancashire Accent.

I went to the Confectioners today, there was a long queue outside, a metre apart, and it had started to rain. 
The assistant behind the counter had shiny...

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Sun and traffic - day economy.
Six a.m. drive to plywood mill. Too tired
to be angry. Each day a step
toward death. What is being accomplished? The
small satisfactions
within each day. Book consciously read.
And frustrations. Package dropped, honey...

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"The Calming of Her Storm"



My mother gave me solace
I fell into her deep hollows
to kiss the wisdom of her 
breath chanting quietly 
I still hear her 
nightingale birdsong caressing 
the soft fluttering 
of her tireless...

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Won’t you please take me back
To the brown couch at my Gramma’s house 
With the big gold-framed antique mirror over it
And hand me Grampa’s old transistor radio
Covered in leather with glorious knobs
That brought me the...

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In glamor-light of sunset
a new crowd of cumulus clouds arrive
and revive a sepia sky-scene—
unworldly woolgatherers gather
spinning fantasy fluff into quixotic yarns
of debutantes dancing with honeymoon hunger;
their dewy eyes blurred by the sawdust of stardust

pseudo-princess-pleasure-seekers
—drama daring...

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What’s fair is fair

I walked into Macys Department Store the other day
thinking I’d buy a few items for the summer
I entered on the first floor and was met by
counter after counter of cosmetics and perfume
with...

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let's dive into the thought of that Benue woman.
let's see through her sorrow carved separately,
how many children are born to die before noon?
1966 saw this on the tail of her skins proudly, 
till 1977, pogom...

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"Psychobabble"
 


She plants the seeds
in Her mind 
through the 
fathomless
oceanful wells
of Her eyes
saltwater falls
over the unchartered
sharp edges of 
Her tight boundaries
to the playing fields
Elysian
where She waits 
impatiently 
in all Her glowing 
warm-skinned dreams
black words turn
to...

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Turtle heard that Salt Woman was on the road again, and he was 
wanting a taste of her. Some miles from Cochiti, he stopped 
for directions at a Speedway gas station.
The dwarf who ran the...

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I see you’ve larked with fairy friends,
On bough, in fields, near brooks - 
Pebbles skim the water’s edge;
Jump skip, jump skip, hop - over brook…

‘Which side is greener?’ Asked the Dragon mare.
‘The bough of tree...

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My Divinity

My violet pastel pencil 
came to a rest
after sketching the 
outline of the natural pond
fringed with bamboo, palms, 
and exotic tropical foliage
reflected 
in the mirrored waters.
Standing before
the easel I couldn't
get my eyes off
the arched...

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In the setting sun, I cast away the anchors
And set sail my wooden vessel of dreams
I, the captain and the crew, alone savvy orders
And keep the deck a splendid shine, I scream

Nay, none wave too...

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Impatient floodwaters at dams
Waiting for shutters to open, 
A hodgepodge of puppets
Excited to perform: at deep slumber, 
Waiting for my eyes to close, 
The naughty byproducts of my brain!

I fly, glide: liberating!
I sing with a...

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Urges ushered Est’bel out of her abode –
a cottage cobbled together from cobwebs and clapboard – 
and she scuttled forth,
her nesty hair tousled
by a leaf-laced breeze

In her bony hands she clutched
dregs of a nightmeg broth
in...

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Moggnome was a wee little soul from Tashee, 
standing on tiptoes, he might reach to your knee.
Pomegranate face, fringed by dandelion fluff,
a thickly thatched head, and like that wasn’t enough,
for it grew on his hands,...

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Put on a happy face
when I release taut fingers 
from your pallid cheeks.
Promises and empty lies 
are sported clichés
that spoil a silenced vocabulary.
A quieted understanding we've
vocally committed to;
barks a matted-jackal’s constitution -
perceiving morose consequences
of blind...

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I can accept love 
I have time to learn
and earn

But
can I embrace compassion
I feel sure appreciates me
far more wisely
than I have yet earned?

Positive passions more pleasant
than I could ever find sufficient time
to brilliantly learn

My adoration...

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A Quiver Sliding Down the Ribs 

                            ...

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A Nation, wearied, sapped traumatized.
This vast exotic land, fringed by lush emerald jungles 
A spark rising from the west, once looked upon by all,
A giant? 
No, faded glory. 
Vistas of burning star and torrential rivers...

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~
                                  ...

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The things they screamed at poor Laura
enraged Owen, and made his blood boil,
to harass a widow who’d lost everything…
Was there nothing left they would not spoil?

Owen saw a police car, on the corner,
the two officers...

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MANSIONS (a contemplation)

Sit
Get comfortable
Relax
Eyes closed    (for most)
A mantra if you wish

He called them “Mansions”
Those which have no name in their space

He urged    “Go into your closet”
That door which fades
...

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If you go downtown early morning
You can see the shopkeepers setting
Old treasures on the sidewalk,
Writing their welcomes with chalk
On little standing blackboards,
Inviting you inside their stores.

Honeysuckle Antiques has its window
Filled with newfound things to show,
Local...

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DARKNESS

When first I considered penning a verse for the poetess,
The clouds methought would open and show riches,
Would say to me happiness be thine,
Verily thou shalt be free and fine,
The fringed curtains of thine eye advance,
‘Twill...

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