Long Lank Poems

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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Poems about Adam, Eve, Lucifer

Eden
by Michael R. Burch

Then earth was heaven too, a perfect garden.
Apples burgeoned and shone, unplucked on sagging boughs.
What, then, would the children eat?
Fruit indecently sweet,
redolent as incense, with a tempting aroma...



Outcasts
by...

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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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No One
by Michael R. Burch

No One hears the bells tonight;
they tell him something isn’t right.
But No One is not one to rush;
he lies in grasses greenly lush
as far away a startled thrush
flees from horned owls...

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*Secret love, two searching eyes*

I
The early morning's languorous mild sun 
Seemed jaded from a nightlong tiring jog, 
And liked dawn's dew-mixed mirth nor glee of smog,
Nor some stray passing clouds' hide-and-seek fun, 
Nor yet was...

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True add verse situation,
     whereat me mission
     trans send dint state didst ache
after yours truly nearly
     did nearly break
chassis 'pon took drastic
 ...

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Good news came my way today February 21, 2021 courtesy late father

Papa - purportedly named
after paternal grandmother
Sadie, her mom's Yiddish name
Basia Brana (or Brandla),
she took two B letters and
found American boys' names
that kind of echoed
her...

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A steel sky, wan and dull, littered
	With ragged clouds and
		bitter dregs of a world girding for
	Sleep
		But no rest
by day, draws a frame over grim roofs and vapid doorways.
Indolent breezes rustle debris past shuffling feet of
	Staggering...

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The Ancient Mariner of the parliament square
Like the mariner he was, a scrawny, skin unfair
A loner with a glittering eyes, possibly a bit touched
A Clint Eastwood impersonator look, he seemed to bear

But a powerful speaker...

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In the court of the Queen,
With her eyes to the ground,
Who is shrouded in darkness
And silence profound

With her skeletal hands,
Wrapped in gossamer skin,
Rest on smoothed out mahogany, 
And gleam through the dim.

There is nothing to...

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She walks among you – the Valkyrie
Silent and diminutive, flitting through your lively ranks, 
Parting your shallow throngs of harsh color and raucous mirth
A somnolent angel of death and destruction, gliding 
Sensuous on marble limbs,...

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After traffic backup and teen crack ups,
my friends and I park and toward today’s lark,
through gate, stamp and bracelet I race
greeting other friends with new to make.

Amid fried onion reek and the compete
smell of fresh...

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Dear Virgo. 
They ask you why you stand in the morning sun for so long, 
to which you reply “It feels like a daylight loon singing her mournful song." 
They ask you why you watch...

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He stared at the pictures,
faces of the love searchers,
twenty first century wanted posters, 
scanning their rewards,
nothing pecuniary ,
preliminary,
maybe,
move on.

“Shall I advertise myself,” he thought,
no one appears sold or bought,
given to the mass,
on a screen of...

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I slip through the dark,  sleek, lank and lean
   shadowed, haze gray, red, white, blue unseen
        'neath the faint light of distant moonbeam.
I creep cross...

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N TROTSE AFRIKANER BOER

Ek staan vanaand en kyk na my land 
Suid Afrika.

Waar is ons land dan? Waar gaan 
ons le vanaand? 

Ek sien weer die voortreker wa. Ek 
sien weer my oupa se oupa...

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Ek wou nie wees als wat ek kon 
wees,
Ek wou nie meer 0800 gedoen het 
as ander,
Maar ek moes, om 'n beter 
toekoms te he.

Troep maak seker die 
vlag op jou linker skouer waai 
altyd...

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The lake was then dry, not even dank,
The tortoise himself had grown lank.

The fox had departed the field,
Since the scorching sun was no shield.

The geese, like the plovers before,
Voyaged to some hills of galore.

Tortoise who...

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Cowpoke Hank hired on fer a dollar a day and found.
He wuz knowed as the best bronc-buster around!
They wuz allus a roll-yer-own a-danglin' frum his lips,
And he wore a pair of 44 shootin' arns on...

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Hank hired on fer a dollar a day an' found.
He wuz knowed as th' best bronc buster around.
They wuz allus a roll-yer-own a-danglin' frum his lips,
An' he wore his jeans an' chaps low on his...

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Twintig tien tot nou

So vinnig soos jy inwurm… in troosprys vlees-genot
..en dink dat dit so lank sal hou; Pasop vir toekoms lot!
En as ek dan verkeerd mag wees – bewys dit dat jy het 
presies...

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Ignorance is bliss said the uneducated Miss
Take the tiger by the tail, and then give a hiss.
A snake in the grass thought outside of the box
You can’t judge a book by its cover, said the...

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She was a plague epidemic in his heart,
Trampled him in the dirt, tore him apart.
Took the man, wore him clean away,
The more poison she spat, he wanted her to stay.

She left him like the dust...

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A Giant

There is an unknown legend that comes
 from the great Black  Forest 
 of a creature fearsome and oh, so glorious.

Though his brain be small 
 and barely larger than a walnut
 his...

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I dare not move as I watch him,
Cautiously approaching his food.
I know if he catches sight of me,
He’ll be gone and it may be for good.

You’ll remember my writing about them,
The stray mother cat and...

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