Long Indiscreet Poems

Lady’s Favor
by Michael R. Burch

May
spring
fling
her riotous petals
devil-
may-care
into the air,
ignoring the lethal
nettles
and may
May
cry gleeful-
ly Hooray!
as the abundance
settles,
till a sudden June
swoon
leave us out of tune,
torn,
when the last rose is left
inconsolably bereft,
rudely shorn
of every device but her thorn.


The...

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Rejection Slips 2

The Shape of Mourning
by Michael R. Burch
 
The shape of mourning
is an oiled creel
shining with unuse,
 
the bolt of cold steel
on a locker
shielding memory,

the monthly penance
of flowers,
the annual wake,
 
the face in the...

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Nucleotidings
by Michael R. Burch

“We will walk taller!” said Gupta,
sorta abrupta,
hand-in-hand with his mom,
eyeing the A-bomb.

“Who needs a mahatma
in the aftermath of NAFTA?
Now, that was a disaster,”
cried glib Punjab.

“After Y2k,
time will spin out of control anyway,”
flamed...

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 Continued from Part 2 

5. MIDNIGHT DREAMS 
At night the soldiers sometimes dream
of many things which make them scream,
like
               ...

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Of late I find myself talking at length 
to my dog – just “puppy talk” at first.
Then with a more grown-up vocabulary
 
most doting dog-owners use – and nothing 
beyond a dog’s mental grasp, depending...

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Of late I find myself talking at length 
to my dog – just “puppy talk” at first.
Then with a familiar grown-up vocabulary
 
most doting dog-owners use – and nothing 
beyond a dog’s mental grasp, depending...

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Fringe benefits (a plug) for perks (yo man) living at 2 highland manor drive

Expanse of green acres draped
like a petticoat when ye arrive
birds of a feather flock together
and bees gather collect nectar,
pollen, and water to...

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The darkness, now descending, floods the city as it dies
while shadows lurk in legions 'neath the looming Evil Eye.
Its frozen stare envelops all, it penetrates and pries,
denouncing loathed dissenters to the keepers in the sky....

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"......unknown destination
don't know if I'm livin or dying
a journey to nowhere
Never cut never mowed
And as I wander
As I often wonder
How did I arrive
Undertaking a journey
Unknown destination
Wholly unexpected place
How did I get here
Where am I heaven
My...

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When I was young and fate was kind
To every wish, I had in mind
No appetite for greater gloom
Betrayed the joy that lit my room
 
Where nothing but the night is black
And black is never dark...

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NOTE TO THE READER
Once Apun a Time

This yarn is a flossy fabric woven of several earlier warped works, lightly laced together, adorned with fur-ther braided tails of human frailty. The looms were loosed, purling frantically...

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In scarce a week the place began to weave 
A weird fascination upon me, 
Nigh hard to bear, harder still to believe, 
I felt as if a dragon from a sea 
Was slowly digesting me...

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My chamber teems with tensions, taut, that logic can’t withstand,
fragmenting mental masonry with memories unplanned,
as bitter tears from hazel eyes reduce the stone to sand.

Dim shadows cast by candles flit across the haunted room,
beleaguer apparitions,...

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Tell all the worlds about the treasures found
Renaissance trace spellbound in the ancient form,
Tender and haunting; an era of time curves around
Past the present to a future beset with tech charm.

Historical pages cling romantically to...

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On asphalt, wet with blood and sweat (down streets with no address), 
there lay a man, snuffed by the Man and left to evanesce.
The Man then strode along the road and smiled at his success
and,...

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I’ve made a few mistakes in my life. I can say that with aplomb
I wore a blue brocade tux with a top hat and cane to my junior/senior prom.

I once let a beautician curl my...

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Part I 

my flesh is filled and fraught with foul disease; 
offensive is my life to mine own eyes 
that see me sail life's clear and cloudy seas 
where faith fills up or empties out...

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The Writer 

Solemn and quietly, they sit in their place of their own choosing
Deepest within their thoughts of both amusing and confusing 
What phrase works, how does this sentence flow infusing 
Such a gift, making...

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my flesh is filled and fraught with foul disease; 
offensive is my life to mine own eyes 
who sees me sail life's clear and cloudy seas 
where faith fills up or empties out our lies....

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An optimist lives inside me…walks beside me
his glasses are rose colored…his outlook…	a little sun-kissed.
Unfortunately there’s more…for living right next door
inside me…his neighbor…the pessimist.

Whatever my condition…they jockey for position
one's outlook is gloomy…the other’s…is quite glorious
and I...

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Punish me not for the sins of my youth,
I stand here today before you to confess the truth,
of the venial indiscretions of my youth.
A lost soul of this planet I once was,
A troublemaker who never...

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Preface

My name is Verlena Sexton.
I am in my forties.
I have three eccentrics – Oland. Emily, and Tony. 
My adult children are my knowledge base in the world of iniquity. 
I continue to face what I...

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Progress
by Michael R. Burch

There is no sense of urgency
at the local Burger King.

Birds and squirrels squabble outside
for the last scraps of autumn:
remnants of buns,
goopy pulps of dill pickles,
mucousy lettuce,
sesame seeds.

Inside, the workers all move
with the...

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Self Empowerment Of This Shemevdik...

January thirteenth two thousand
and nineteen will complete
mine third score orbitz round the sun,
(I can hardly believe that either)
who as a youth evinced

demure and effete
traits, and now weathered, Ongepatshket,
and plenty seasoned,
I feel...

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Cold smiles,
cadaver touch
Whatever love you had for me,
now ain’t much
My tender heart still not yet tough
In-bed pleas to a deaf shoulder
get covered with stone silent rebuff
You flaunt your affairs openly,
with no regard for my feelings
You...

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