Long Looted 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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Rejection Slips 3

Rejection Slip
by Michael R. Burch

Whenever my writing gets rejected,
I always wonder how the rejecter got elected.
Are we exchanging at the same Bourse?
(Excepting present company, of course!)

When editors reject my poems, did I slip...

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I know that even when others deceive me, you can't decieve me with your blossoming ink of truth.
Go tell them what has happened to our budget,
Tell them that our budget is missing in a broad...

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Like the twelfth
juror in the play
I must say I am not
convinced
For I know a recipe
for trouble 
I have seen the
double standards
And I do not approve
this for Kenya
I will never approve
it, and neither
Would you, dear
friend of...

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As October 1 approaches, HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY……………………
I have enormous tracts of land and vast volumes of water, but cannot feed myself.
So I spend $1 billion to import rice and another $2 billion on milk.
I produce...

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Midterms are over and I killed ‘em (Yes, even physics) - yeah me! I spent the last two weeks like prisoners do, marking off days until - freedom. Now the pressure’s off and I can...

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Why, after everything, do I feel lost tonight?
Like a ship that drifted out of calm waters and suddenly find itself adrift in an ocean of uncertainty

Why, after promises that have been sealed by kisses, do...

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A Song If this is My Country..

This Song is dedicated to the brutal Rape victim of Delhi and it’s a message for My Countrymen. The Original song is in Hindi on You Tube with Song...

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Musings at Giza, Egypt
by Michael R. Burch

In deepening pools of shadows lies
the Sphinx, and men still fear his eyes.
Though centuries have passed, he waits.
Egyptians gather at the gates.

Great pyramids, the looted tombs
—how still and desolate...

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It was back in summer, 2020,
when activists ran ‘round, burning cities,
convinced that they had to destroy their lives
since a thug with similar skin color died.

Amidst the BLM and Antifa
was a young woman known as Jacinta,
only...

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I know their fears.
I know their cravings.
I know their reflexes.
I know their thoughts.
They know that I know who they are.
I am exactly like them, but with a dose of Pan-African melanin.
I’ve fully absorbed every mechanism...

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Q:  Immediately after the Gog and Magog war what does the Sovereign LORD
      instruct the townspeople of Israel to do pertaining to Gog? Ezekiel 39:9

A:   "Then those...

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The Atlantic ocean...,an unrelenting mistress

More'n ten thousand leagues under the sea
next to an octopus's garden in the shade.

OceanGate manufacturer
of the Titan Submersible,
which vessel that set out to reach
Titanic shipwreck with five passengers
officials believe the suffered
a...

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What is poetry, if not a form of artistry, looking for beauty, through the calamity?
Why do we waste rhymes and peoples time just for us to shine in the spotlight of our own iniquity?
We stand...

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More than 1,000 men, sometimes women
forced to clandestine detention centers.
Relatives mystified as to there whereabouts.
Some Russian troops bribed 
with money, weapons or ammunition.
Returning gave rise to evidence
of rape to both women and men,
constant beatings rendering...

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Let Haiti be absolutely free
Haiti is the father of Freedom and Liberty
Haiti is the first nation to forever ban or abolish slavery
And the slave trade in the western hemisphere
And in the world
The first to practice...

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The parents whose 12-year-old son was just laid to rest
From spraying bullets exploding in his young body’s chest

The father whose daughter was tortured and raped
By monsters initiating in a criminal gang
She will never see her...

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We need to remember our heritage and the reason we celebrate the 4th of July.
 
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Their story. . .
...

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You have raided my night again,
as the burst of a sudden storm,
sneaking into my loneliness,
at the most unexpected hour,
plunging me into swirls of pain
too deep for expression,
leaving me in utter disorientation.

I now drift aimless with...

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Elegant in burnt orange afterglow, 
sparkling starlight opens the show.
Neighbors and strangers appear all aroun’, 
porch lights and car lights enlighten the town.

They arrive afoot and atop handlebars.
Tots wave from strollers like famed movie stars.
Mothers...

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Still smarting from stupid scamming fraudsters...
five months ago to the day

Twas the cusp of tooth thousand
twenty three summer solstice,
when yours truly (a fool
and his money went separate ways)
mine cherished nest egg,
I would immediately miss
lesson immediately...

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My fury and outrage remain unabated , it seethes like magma
and spreads itself throughout my being , it is barely contained
I shield it to keep the damage within , so it does not consume me
or...

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'Knock, knock' on the door,
But, I won't let you in.
No, no.
The chamber of my heart is closed.
But 'knock, knock' you say.
Oh no!
I am stronger in this position than any other.
A huge 'liquidation' sign hung,
For months...

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Over two hundred million people sleeps and wake without a leader,

A cloned effigy in a rock called "Aso"

too old to lead or long dead to be,

demented or dead, they cannot tell,

old age has come but...

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QUESTIONS OF BALANCE: A JEREMIAD

Why is it at 70 politicians are still underage
To assume political offices	
And at 30 youths are overage to begin a professional career?

What divine strength hath a leader at 75
When a mandatory...

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