Long Lillian Poems

Ali's Song
by Michael R. Burch
for Muhammad Ali

They say that gold don’t tarnish. It ain’t so.
They say it has a wild, unearthly glow.
A man can be more beautiful, more wild.
I flung their medal to the river,...

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Can this ever stop
The world is blacked by the lunar love of my heart
By the vapor of my mind 
All the tides have gone undone
The mist covers my sight
The beast comes out tonight
-- The Storm Comes...

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24 hours to live…I need to hurry and come up with a plan
	It’s only right to “worry” because I haven’t been half the man
23 hours to live…An hour gone by, I wanna break down and...

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She Goes Back
By Lillian J. Jeffrey


Whispers flow like a river
she will be sold
sold or rented like a cash crop

Born on a Maryland plantation
her mother works the big house
Harriet runs barefoot in the woods
side by side...

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She Goes Back
By Lillian J. Jeffrey


Whispers flow like a river
she will be sold
sold or rented like a cash crop

Born on a Maryland plantation
her mother works the big house
Harriet runs barefoot in the woods
side by side...

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She Goes Back
By Lillian J. Jeffrey


Whispers flow like a river
she will be sold
sold or rented like a cash crop

Born on a Maryland plantation
her mother works the big house
Harriet runs barefoot in the woods
side by side...

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The Snowflake

Sit quietly
And pretend 
There's a roaring fire 
In the fireplace

The snow
Silently builds 
Against the north side
Of the house. 

Smell 
The smoke? 
Listen
To the wind howl?

And maybe 
In the cold night
Hear a barn door
Banging away?...

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That morning, I thought I was dreaming
I heard my Dad say it, but I thought my ears were playing tricks on me
I didn't expect for this to happen to you
Well, at least not this soon

My...

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Captain Jack and Lillian

It was a mid-day in May
When red sunlight lazily lay
peering through cloudless skies,
casting down on ocean's brilliant dyes
that Captain Jack and his crew of three
set sail for the magic solitude
of the boundless...

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Captured by the beauty of Lillian
I think of her on the coast of Durban.
With her is where I want to be.
So beautiful she could be a Wodaabe.
There's no way I could assign a worth,
Indeed the...

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It was a year of revolutions
Worldwide, quiet little fights
Wanting more from democracy?
Fighting for Civil Rights.?
From Hull three trawlers sank
February, fifty eight lives lost,
Adding to that 10 thousand
Deep sea fishing would finally cost.

They called them Headscarf...

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“It’s a parcel for you, Sarge!”
the words hung visibly;
condensed in the bitter air.

Ice underfoot cracked
beneath the sodden boots 
approaching;
each step releasing 
fetid odours
of rotting corpses,
faeces,
death,
that it was hitherto
holding at bay.

A dozen pairs of eyes
stared, greedily
as...

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A Call to a Religious Life
      By Lillian J. Jeffery


Family pray together,
share their table with the poor,
young Agnes goes on outings,
outings with the local church, 
sings in the choir
Her chosen...

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A choir of earthly Black angels – with voices fit for Heaven –
sang Amazing Grace as ancient Miz Claudie Walker
had never heard it sung before.
She had not known that it was Lillian’s favorite hymn,
or that...

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WHY GHOST IS SINGLE (ME);

Olivia is very lazy
She's also a bit crazy,
She once sent my mom a nude with the caption "Your son loves this "
You bet it didn't go so nicely.

Cecilia is very selfish,
And...

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Remembering those l-o-n-g  train rides in the late 1950's early 1960's; back then we had to be tagged and sit at the front of the train. We were filled with excitement, eagerness, anticipation along...

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They're gathering their broomsticks
and clastic lunar hats
Sohrgetting all their toads and frogs
for what we've known as spats

And delving down a one way crete
for wicked tracious acts
Of Spider eggs and treppled legs
on what we've known as...

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There was a possum
of worldly descent
Gathering diamonds
and things it had spent

Chasing a catfish
down dragonfly row
Wanting to see if
it was someone to know

Laughed at an aardvark 
with tangerine pants
Filling it's pockets 
with yesterday's ants

Climbed up a...

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Love me - not for my looks
Love me - not for my wealth
Love me for being
For seeing
For sharing
For caring

Love me to ease my pain
Love me for the laughter we share again
Love me for the memories...

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My hand held my great-grandma’s hand
The silence overwhelming,
Her condition making me mad.
Why God? Why her?
Taking away the one I love

She slips something rough into my palm
I opened it up and see a heart shaped necklace.
“...

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I am from fast-food,
From paper plates and dinners in front of the t.v.
I am from the stale stubborn silence,
Eating away at smiles
I am from the Lily flowers, resting in the corner
The Willow tree begging to...

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They're polishing their broomsticks
and sharpening their hats
Catching little spiders
and feeding them to bats

Howling at their cauldrons
and cackling to cats
Cradling wooden stir sticks
and babbling for spats

Mixing up their potions
and yelling out their spells
Rebelling that they're no...

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They're gathering their broomsticks
and sharpening their hats
Found catching little spiders
and feeding them to rats

Down pesty little fruit flies
and swiftly soaring bats
All mixing in a cauldron
for temptous gloary vat

And tasty to the forked tongue
of glecious gloried...

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The Consequences of Typos

By Elton Camp

A typo can be far from a minor thing
Discredit and rejection it can bring
See what such errors might have meant
And if these would have gone to print

This book from Papa...

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After the kiss

When you kissed me last night
I went back to the moment
When for the first time
I felt someone’s lips
Touching mine
And then I returned 
To the now
To the fire
To the wonderful feeling
Of having a little...

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