Long Jarred Poems

Where art thou anonymous benefactor...to offer me succor?

Ah... methinks legal tender 
could be a boon to help me bolster 
mein kampf with necessary material equipage,
which prospect to acquire essential 
commodities sabotaged 
at the altar of...

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Where Does the Butterfly Go?
by Michael R. Burch

for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba

Where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails,
when thunder howls,
when hailstones scream,
when winter scowls,
when nights compound dark frosts with snow ...
Where...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems IX

These are early poems of mine, written in my teens as a high school student and during my first two years of college.

Shock
by Michael R. Burch

It was early in the morning of...

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A healthy dose of invective flourishes at Highland Manor asylum

I hate to be curt,
but welcome to the monkey house
at 2 highland manor drive,
where all manner of imbeciles go berserk.

I and the missus
(thee unfortunate recipient
of poisonous...

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A long, long time ago on a cold winter's night

A long, long time ago on a cold winter’s night
Two hearts were broken the crest of the eve
This is the story of how it all happened
How...

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*** Satan Tries to Strike ***

By the house,
By the door
	coming in
	across the floor
To kneel by my bed,
My guardian angel came
Carrying ways to hold the peace
	of our Lord,
To restore the joy in my morn…

And, to wait...

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MY adventure began no less than upon this chilling night when homes of many lower their shades and kill the light. 

As sullen souls lay down for bed and fall into their dreams some common...

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This piece explains why I never managed to get this particular poem written - 


On a cold December evening back in 1967, just before I went to bed, I heard 
a scratching noise
Coming from our...

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Who knows if magic exists,
if dreams come true
and whether miracles take place
(all of these things we thought we knew)

... buried in our haste
to dig childhood's grave...

And though something gets lost
along the way,
it's never very far...

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Where art thou anonymous benefactor...to offer me succor?

Castaway stranded on figurative 
deserted island pitted with absolute 
zero salvation, sole recourse 
finds scant consolation with prayer 
lifetime atheist draws futile faith 
within himself grudgingly accepting

feeble accomplishments...

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just sitting there with your jaw all agape,
staring into my energized eyes with your black buttons
that got stuck within the orbits of your head, and
i feel as though i just might go apeshit

along the way,
i've...

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ARGH! NO MORE MEDICARE!

A worst nightmare loomed large
notification courtesy Montgomery County
Assistance Office caseworker
implied medical coverage axed
I felt hammered, nailed, shingled out...
livid with rage
frenzied, harried, jarred...
railing away
fit tubby tied to train tracks
ready to kill myself,
but dang,...

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ARGH! NO MORE MEDICARE!

A worst nightmare loomed large
notification courtesy Montgomery County
Assistance Office caseworker
implied medical coverage axed
I felt hammered, nailed, shingled out...
livid with rage
frenzied, harried, jarred...
railing away
fit tubby tied to train tracks
ready to kill myself!

Bajillion dollars...

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Susan sits by an open window
Remembering her brother
It was during the sixties when it happened
The exact date was May 8, 1966
They called the Sixties liberating
A time when America accepted change
But it wasn’t like that for...

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From the moment I am jarred awake by the obnoxious summoning of my electronic
sergeant,
To the time when my deep down soul tiered eyes finally close and the restless tossing
begins:
I am Me. Balancing on the edge...

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"Puzzle Stomped"



Pieces scattered
placed on a table 
with boundaries 

between 
the incarcerated margins 
there are strict conditions

Time drips 
its wet connection
each piece a stair fitted 

imperfectly
perfect 
towards upwards 

new mirror reflection
a cracked heart piercing
the tear with...

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This imprisonment of clay, 
this putrid jarred tint subjected to time's defeat, 
this cankered vile contagion. 
tossed to and fro as on a sea with unrelenting  anchorage of ease, 
this worm, ephemeral in the...

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She sits there
electric as the third rail.

Entering Charles M.G.H.
but we’re still moving quickly
(finally
just three of us now).
Each disgorged passenger
leaves a seat
looking back at me
with a shiny black grin.

The wheels and track
wail
as a dilapidated wall
comes into...

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As our family gathered for Easter…within a few minutes…in my brain…a memory was jarred…of our children and grandchildren searching for eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden in our yard.

I remember our children with their Easter...

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He awoke, dazed and confused as to where he was, trying to remember whether it was day or still night. A dull ache seeped from behind his eyes, like so many other recent times. His...

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The nurse left work
At five-o-clock
Followed by a midget 
In a floppy eared winter hat
Who looked something like 
A small mixed breed dog
Caught between a Pit Bull Terrier
And a very old Mexican Chiwawa 

This was the...

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You'll feel my pain, bud and I 
urgently pray for flight...I 
wanna float above the beach 
shore like a kite
On a windy, sunny day

I pray...

One day ... One wretched day

Someday ... One wicked night 

You'll...

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My reefs look dazzling in the dawn light.
A sea of hypocrisy and lies that we must fight.
They are held to what they are allowed to view,
And yield when they grip their identity and hue.

I can...

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I flip the history of Bojangles
On a cool Sunday evening
Los Angeles coming down
A flow of oboes breathing
Through the lung of the street
The hobo not stopping for air
Fingers moving in a dance
Across the strings of consciousness
Milking...

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Awakening From Pleasant Dreams...

No matter scant details recalled upon 
arising from slumber, this even though 
submerged into deep unconscious - (as 
ifmine being plunged bajillion miles 
subterranean catacombs) thoroughly 
saturated with inaccessible facets of my...

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