Long Jags Poems

SELF REFLECTIONS

These are poems about mirrors, images, self-image, reflections, impressions and self-reflection. 

Self Reflection
by Michael R. Burch 

for anyone struggling with self-image

She has a comely form
and a smile that brightens her dorm ...
but she's grossly...

Read More

She smirked 
With a remarkable resemblance 
To Miranda Richardson 
Playing Elizabeth the First

Just as soon as I can bump off 
My new Sister-in-Law
Korporate Kate 
That two bit Sloan 
It shall be I who is 
Next...

Read More

My birthplace is Shokpartogai, my golden cradle,
Here I arrived, opening the door to this world wide.
The snowstorm paused, holding its breath inside,
When hear the cry of a baby struggling to survive.

My wide land was wrapped...

Read More

On the first day of school, I long for its end, 
Yearning for my Jag family, my heart's dear friend.
The food, a tragic horror, but health's their decree, 
A social kid silenced, a shadow of...

Read More

(A Prophecy of Collapse)

Once upon a time, beneath stars and stripes,
Stood a colossus—loud, armed, and blind to its blight.
It roared not with wisdom but with greed and might,
Casting shadows across oceans, in day and night.

Its...

Read More

I was told in the beginning
    That a wish may not well be  unicorn
    With two winged thrust-thronged
    To soar upon the cumulus,
  And...

Read More

There’s civic unrest in Neasden
Which has become a mini hell
The vapours from all those camels 
Has caused an awful fruity smell
The citizens are angry and are
Marching off to Westminster hall
Now the novelty has worn off
They’re...

Read More

Thunder rolls in the distance, lightning jags across the sky,
all around the heavens are angry … a fiery strike becomes the eye.
 
With little rain, and tinder forest, flame reaches out for what is near,
rising...

Read More

My overcast mood broods.  In a mental melee
across my mind’s skies, as far as the eyes can see,
maddened crowds of electrically charged thought-clouds prey
seized negative space surrounding the heart of me.

Across my mind’s skies...

Read More

She started crying in the middle of rages—
not the soft kind, but sharp,
like she’d cut herself on something
I couldn’t see.
She slammed drawers.
Shouted at a spoon.
Broke a plate and sobbed
as if the world had cracked with...

Read More

And so I lived from hand to mouth
watching, and wondering
if I'd see you again
while you ~ climbed higher and higher!

Your tredmarks ~ seeming the same
relationships, younger all the time
and strategy, becoming harder
and more obscure!

While I...

Read More

With tendencies towards modes abhorrent, I operate
    Hone deterrence to deserved carnal pleasure consolidate
    Intentional extension of potential paths provoke
    Libidinous grasping of bliss platter's swift...

Read More

A tiny scar that marks a 
long-ago mishap or misdemeanor. 
A slender ridge left by an 
ancient scalpel. 
Faint dots and lines,   
barely more tactile than a tattoo,  
in the shadow of...

Read More

“Why do the Rams behave violently?”
The little boy queried of his father.
“They need all their might to fight the Jaguars,
But Jags are fast, don’t know why they bother.”

“And why do Broncos try to beat up...

Read More

Virginia Tech
Has receded in time
But not in space
The morning mist
Still smell of cordite fumes
Wind or tornado
Gives off a jarring scream
That jags
Comfort of the soul

How many more lost
Marginalized
Muted echoes of grief
Wander in our void
Pent-up to explode
Into...

Read More