Long Gnaws Poems

These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems ...



The Vision of the Overseer’s Right Hand
by Michael R. Burch

“Dust to dust ...”

I stumbled, aghast,
into a valley of dust and bone
where all men become,
at last, the same color...

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I walk o u t...

I am lost in unapproachable light—a spectral broth
I am tasting the screaming silence—the archetypal observer
dissects my essence-fossil Passion
a seismic rupture between life/death/rebirth
gnaws at my marrow This dilemma-kudzu
coils tight, constricting tomorrow's breath

Death...

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War shapes the warriors it touches, leaving behind vestiges that linger in their lives long after the battlefield fades from view. In Recon Marines: Searching for the Real Enemy, we are thrust into the unrelenting...

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No One
by Michael R. Burch

No One hears the bells tonight;
they tell him something isn’t right.
But No One is not one to rush;
he lies in grasses greenly lush
as far away a startled thrush
flees from horned owls...

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Opa John

The caboose sits red—its iron spine cradles the earth like Atlas
rails stretching into nowhere. The stream murmurs softly
its voice threading through Ellie’s laughter like silver wire

"Do you see it?" I ask her my voice...

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Placed seventh in
Consciousness Correction Poetry Contest 
Sponsored by Unseeking Seeker

 
                        ...

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I
The beggar outside the supermarket
You swore was picked up later
In a flashy car
Sat there in the sun for 8 hours
While you pissed & moaned
All the way home
To your bookless
Mausoleum 
With a chlorinated pool
Where one day...

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In the shadows of a fading room,  
Lies a heart, a fragile thread in gloom.  
Time, the thief, steals moments away,  
Leaving whispers of love in decay.

Bridges once burned now smolder and...

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Blanked out
Blanket bliss...
I pout and doubt
And all dat 'n diss
I'm not spic and span
I'm not fine and dandy
Rollercoaster my blues
I have some news...
scrambled with clues 
Wearing diffarant (being arrogant and different) shoes 

All I said
All...

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Oh God, you must know what I’m missing out on
Though at times I am not really sure,
If it’s possibly not inconvenient “in Truth”
Might You help me discover the cure?

My loneliness never does leave me alone,
Though...

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TRUE ...

You know not those dark
Places, mine, the dull, black
Chasms that hold a mind
When it's bare - stark and

Keen and cold ... when it's
Left with itself for time
Unquenchable, out of the
Streams of consciousness

And normality, scraped...

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POEMS ABOUT SAINTS AND SINNERS

Of Seabound Saints and Promised Lands
by Michael R. Burch 

Judas sat on a wretched rock,
his head still sore from Satan’s gnawing.
Saint Brendan’s curragh caught his eye,
wildly geeing and hawing.

"I’m on parole...

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For mature readers…

I wonder if you think of me every single moment of every single day
Oh my, if only I wouldn’t doubt and wish you’d wash away my dismay
I desire your lovingkindness amongst my own...

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The Silent Killer

The silent stealthy cancer
Creeps and spreads inside
With no warning it's deadly rancour
When it strikes none can abide

Relentlessly eating through and through
As remorseless as a snake
Crushing muscle, bone and sinew
While asleep and while awake

No...

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I whisper “I'm so sorry.”
Then I remember that grammar rule –
“I'm sorry,” I repeat.
And your head drops and you say, “It's okay.”
You look up and I see from your eyes
that it's not okay.
I feel terrible...

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For I feared all the way down to the bones of my soul, and wish only to go home. But the light of the lord spoke once more. Show this man the children of woe....

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

                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brushing butter onto pastries,
squeezing...

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we squeeze in the moment, breeze by the apartment of gore, go to the store with a nail and a 2x4 , flip the sign on the door, excuse yourself coz you're poor and ignored...

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“Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
                I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
  ...

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It’s a recurring thought–
Over and over again–
echoing in my head,
Bouncing back and forth,
Reeling up and down like a Yo-yo,
Like a boomerang that keeps coming back,
Like a song stuck in your head,
A thought that gnaws at...

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It’s a recurring thought –
Over and over again –
Reverberating in my head,
Bouncing back and forth,
Reeling up and down like a Yo-yo,
Like a boomerang that keeps coming back,
Like a song stuck in your head,
A thought that...

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I stepped into the shower and as the water trailed down my back..
Left alone with my thoughts again, I felt myself collapse.
I know there's no use spilling tears over what is past,
But every time i'm...

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Through a tear in the wall, the sunlight peeks,
No one comes to ask how the old woman speaks.
How does she endure, so forlorn and alone?
Only God could be her aid, her own.
The horizon stretches, the...

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He walks alone, a shadow cast  
By memories too fierce to last,  
A warrior once, now lost, betrayed—  
By time, by fate, by war's parade.  
His brothers, bold, now rest below,...

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the tears quietly leave my eyes
but their path does not seem
to have a rhyme or reason
and they have no destination
no purpose but to outline
my ‘self-imposed misery’
with glistening and watery pain

i want to cry
every hour of...

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