Long Infernos Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch

If brevity is the soul of wit
then brevity and levity 
are the whole of it.
—Michael R. Burch

To write an epigram, cram.
If you lack wit, scram!
—Michael R. Burch

Conformists of a feather
flock together.
—Michael...

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I Know The Truth
by Marina Tsvetaeva
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I know the truth?abandon lesser truths!
There's no need for anyone living to struggle!
See? Evening falls, night quickly descends!
So why the useless disputes?generals, poets, lovers?

The wind...

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The Truth Of This Magnitude”

Obstinate defiance from an indignant child 
Consummate reliance on the spirit of the Wild 

Intricate compositions of meticulous art 
A syndicate of derision that is waiting to depart 

The honorary commemoration...

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HIROSHIMA
I remember it well, that first day in Hell
             So long ago, I know

As the sirens sounded our Yankee foe
Decided that now his...

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Doomsday Clock minute hand...

hovers over 100 seconds to midnight 
as of January 2022, 
which apocalyptic prognostication
established by the Bulletin 
of Atomic Scientists
maintained since 1947, 
the clock quantifies a metaphor 
for threats to humanity 
from unchecked...

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I am…

Washing a stormy night clean, its promise
this empty grave,
where sunshine suddenly erases the shadows,
who sigh like dejected, broken tears,
surfacing in the dewdrops, 
lifting the darkness of a night,
before the blessings,
before the trembling silence
started to...

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Hiroshima – seventy seven years since August 6th, 1945

Given the nuclear weaponry arsenal today
August 6th, 2022, our collective ability
to lay waste major metropolitan areas
would make unleashing atomic warfare
synonymous with the ways and means
to annihilate, decimate,...

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Sinister voices heard...

and ethereal disembodied spirits seen
from the other side of the woods
said phantasmagorical sound and sight
particularly experienced every Halloween.

Though dog tired
ready for the nocturnal sandman,
but before succumbing to countless winks
namely, quintessentially, telepathically 
fictitious mythical...

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THE TIME LORDS

When the Old Wise Maker made Adam from wood and clay.
He cast him in to fire of la vida
And dried him in the sun as he lay
Charging no man!
 No penny from him...

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NUKES
First Stanza

Clear was the day
Bright was the sun
The clouds were happy
And the skies
Azure
Beleaguered the city was an aura of serenity
Sparrows leaped towards the horizon
Into the deep heavens
The city was blissful
Its oppidan denizens did their daily...

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Oh hello there! Again!
Aah! 
Yes!
You there!

Such lovely young pretty plaything, a female?
I presume?

With the beautiful expensive suit!
I am just seeing you there like a dream of crimson and horror! 

Oh sorry! 
At my age, your...

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My head spins as the noise from the crash echoes in my head. I sit up in some kind of terminal with strange trains bound left and right for places I don’t understand. 

One is...

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How to Feel When Your House Burns Down
The home you are raised in is a mother tongue. 
I was four when it was built, an age when innocence
turns river water and all that lives within...

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notification of fire evacuation 
     slated to occur 
April 12th, 2018 (between the hours 
     of 9:00 am and 12 pm) did spur
me to validate Google asper,
 
that direct object heave ving, 
     pro noun sub bull,...

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Already the month
     of August 2018,
     May never become 
     a je June'm
     (Forget-me-not)
     time...

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I gave a piece of myself,
Something gentle and true
Trickling with teardrops,
Melting the darkness, the fear
With kindness and carefully 
Laced feelings, beauty – honesty
Sincere as the wind, rustling
Laughter from the dawn
Where I laid up all my...

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Hiroshima – seventy six years since August 6th, 1945

Once again, I take momentary pause
to contemplate horrific event
regarding unleashing atomic warfare
activating nuclear brinkmanship,
hence time to trot out a poem
written initially some years ago
courtesy yours truly.

Robert Oppenheimer...

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strobe into the secret night
the scene of our sacred crime
not just any old crime

I confess to you but 
I cry most insidious in design 
a crime worthy of the divine 

what can such a crime...

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No "FAKE" Fire Drill

Residents at high
     land manor apartments
     (aside from myself)
     got rudely awakened -
     by what sounded
...

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The horsemen have arrived     on their menacing 
              mares.         ...

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—Aftermath, From Ground Zero—

No one will able to destroy this great nation
though Twin Towers collapsed to the ground in the heartless terrorists hands, 
and only ugly twisted steel beams and concrete debris piled high
in the...

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Under leaden skies where shadows gather,
We look back at the great tragedy of the ages,
Since the Enlightenment, we admire the shattered dreams,
Where optimists, as architects of false hopes,
Have woven the warp of fear and bitter...

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Hiroshima n Nagasaki – Seventy Five Years Since 1945

Robert Oppenheimer manned 
"The Manhattan Project", 
a top secret World War II mission                   
which constituted "Little Boy" codename 
for a uranium gun-type 
atomic bomb dropped at 0815

exploding 580...

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Beyond from Walls of Sleep

Deep dormant eyes forever weep
Keep hells behind upon walls of sleep
Dancing demons in rituals necromancing
Glancing of gates admits infernos entrancing
Damned words resonating of souls scammed
Programmed lips through evil’s command
Hellion hypnotic of...

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Cold wind northern, swept atop black waters
Twilight fog unto dim
Massive ships move through silence 
Land upon on a harbor
Thirty thousand Vikings, Danish and Norwegian 
Move onto mass and in

Legions forward march heed the death toll...

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