Long Goring Poems

the Horror
by Michael R. Burch

the Horror lurks inside our closets
the Horror hides beneath our beds
the Horror hisses ancient curses
the Horror whispers in our heads

the Horror tells us Death is coming
the Horror tells us there’s no...

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Completing the Pattern
by Michael R. Burch

Walk with me now, among the transfixed dead
who kept life’s compact and who thus endure
harsh sentence here?among pink-petaled beds
and manicured green lawns. The sky’s azure,
pale blue once like their eyes,...

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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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the wedding cake: $16,000-$80,000
cleaning of the streets after the wedding in london: $64,000
the flowers: $320,000-$800,000
pre-wedding hideaway (the goring hotel hosting middleton’s family & friends): $552 a night
for double rooms
middleton’s wedding dress: $64,000-$434,000
the engagement ring: valued...

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I be a common salty once, no captain's bars, did bear,
Yet blessed was I to venture where few a skipper dared.

   From steadfast crow's high perch I watched the bright coast beacons wink,
...

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Verizon payment arrangement -
due november fifteenth two thousand nineteen

Yours truly long time
satisfactory Verizon customer
i.e. namely this monsieur
breathes easy, cuz within noggin
contentment doth whir
billing agent pleasant as
Mister Rogers neighbor.

Great relief pending bill
$148.80, she did defer
'pon my...

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Narrow escapes- thrice threatening
Came and went
Despite succor abstaining
My soul under no circumstances meant

Harm to my person
Stolid as I sometimes dreamt to claim
Not heeding, not learning warnings a salutary lesson
That on me poured blame

Sucked from narrow...

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As I soared at forty-thousand feet strapped in the aluminum-tubed aerie,
Racing through my skull was a tune made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary!
They made leaving on a jet plane sound so very romantic and...

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Goring down, shredding tears, I pule to,
give my prayer, to all family's and
friends, missing or gone, across this
blanket world, as her gusty winds flare, 
and ragging rapids spill, these islands in 
darkness, I will not...

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There’s a panda tap dancing in hobnails
There’s an octopus mixing up cocktails
A bush kangaroo
Blows on a kazoo
While the band are all tadpoles or pond-snails

A gorilla is dancing the tango
With a chimp who’s still holding a...

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There once was a man 
named Trump; his
country needing a
royal bump; so, as age can 
refine, like vintage and wine –  
(seeing liberties decline) 
thought to take-on 
the thankless task 
of pulling a nation...

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Uncontrollable, saline 
  emotion bitterly shed
into the sinking depths of despair.
Uncontrollable, shakes
  of a derelict head,
    quantum leap savagery eating away.

Inconsolable, thrust
  of a rapier grief,
goring the nerves that...

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Blood Satan likes but on this no blame:
Lord God and Christ do too: Preferred flame
Then, wickedly, goes for Goring Horns, 
His own copy of Christ’s Crowning Thorns: 
The Horns not for self-caricature, 
Rather for use...

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Cherries pale yellow tinged with red
Colorful umbrella, mercurial spread
Mellowing veil hovers overhead
Hand staid until dark color, pungent odor wed
Nature's rhythms from youth nurtured in my head
In fowl, tell tale signs providentially inbred
Knowing beak is quicker...

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I badly fear feuding cattle,
Vexed into a ferocious battle;
An endless shudder at the goring horn
To them granted when they were born.

I could imprison the defecating cattle
And off and on heatedly rattle
About their messy-looking hilly dung,
At...

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I was hollering in my sleep at four thirty in the morning
We both look at Mrs. A. She is high drama
I was yelling too said our friend Mr. Goring
My girlfriend bit me. She thought I...

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When the street was becoming alive
man had become a charged bull,
goring the god to death.
My father wept, took the corpse home,
that was his child.

In the wild fire, a tall eucalyptus
had burned, turned black.
What did you...

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Avebury a Wiltshire village low
To windswept beacon of Ivinghoe.
Eighty-five miles,vale and hill
Wayfare freedoms,exhilarate and thrill.

Striding downs in grassy scrub
Midst trees and clumps of shrub;
Shaded lanes,gates and stiles,
Wayside pubs to rest awhile.

Overton to Wantage plain
Goring and...

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