Long Mack Poems

How I Got Richer and What I Did Next



I struck a sly deal with some Wall Street investors.
I shorted 'em stocks that didn't exist!
But they got me back (those post-empty-nesters)
by making fake deals I couldn't...

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"The Precipice"



In the Autumn 
she wore a wedding veil
A cold winter would lift it
Kiss her lips passionately to 
speak words of 
LOVE
on a 
late roll call

“Well, that’s insanity for you” 
some snakes would hiss
others rapture-faced
on...

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And still his death haunts webbed wide world post American Civil War

Preface: On the evening of April 14, 1865, while attending a special performance of the comedy, "Our American Cousin," President Abraham Lincoln was shot.

President...

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Ford's Theater, April 15th, 1865...
Petersen House, Washington, D.C.

I admit to own a passion
for the Civil War in general,
and the life and death of
the sixteenth president in particular
between a hard spot of whiskey
and draughts of arrack;
nonetheless...

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(Sam Trio stands at the mic, snaps fingers lightly, takes a drag on a Marlboro, and smiles to the crowd) Dig this, we’re going back in time, way back to the smokey jazz clubs and...

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Wham Bam not even a thank you ma’am, was I hit by a Mack truck or slapped in the face where I stand?
The severity of it, but to you a job well done, the patting...

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In a far off place in a cold cold land there lived a man called Mr. Mack. The place he lived in was called Kirkland Lake. Kirkland Lake was small as cities go, but it...

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endless leisure hours as distorted time stretch before me...

like the infinite vista
upon the midwestern plain
farther than the eyes of mine
(an ascetic and copacetic
shortsighted father of two grown
twenty something daughters)
can no longer see,
since sockets severely seared
staring...

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Der Abschied (“The Parting”)
by Bertolt Brecht
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

We embrace;
my fingers trace
rich cloth
while yours encounter only moth-
eaten fabric.
A quick hug:
you were invited to the gay soiree
while the minions of the "law" relentlessly pursue...

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Petersen House, Washington, D.C.  

(i admit to own a passion for the Civil War in general, 
and the life and death of 
the sixteenth president in particular).

between a hard spot of whiskey 
 ...

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Let’s have a lil fun. Let’s see how many of these you remember.
If you know, you know (Smile)

Little Boy Blue come blow your horn…
Jack be Nimble, Jack be quick
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Little Bo...

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Politech chef in the kitchen
cooking up another Microsoft microdot
meth batch of morphology
Walter White’s in the house
brewing more truth breaking bad
tweet juice chemical toxicity
And the viral caged bird brains
are getting subliminally stamped
with the neon glowing letters...

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Die Bücherverbrennung ("The Burning of the Books")
by Bertolt Brecht
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

When the Regime
commanded the unlawful books to be burned,
teams of dull oxen hauled huge cartloads to the bonfires.

Then a banished writer, one...

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Welfare started out for all the right reasons.
People needed it. It saved so many from dying.
It helped children and the elderly. FDR had the right idea.
In the 40’s when people had pride and begged for...

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Little Miss Mary was thirteen years old, and lived in gold, olden days;
Like the longed for future, peeking at past, both of them full of praise.

Miss Mary lived in a western town, with her dear...

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Surviving this World that has so much wrong,
It makes me wonder if I've changed,
I know I’m just a pilgrim passing through,
I would get to know Jesus if I were you,
We live in a dread full...

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Before you stand up to pray you might need to halt
and deal with any grievances that were your fault
and before you come to the altar to give God your treasures
stop and mend the hurt and...

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In Skagway town, eighteen ninety-eight
Lived a young man, Elliot McKay.
He worked with his father selling dry goods,
To the miners heading Klondike-way,
They made some good coin in a day.

Elliot he, like most younger men,
Had an eye...

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Jayden Makieh Kelly
    
  As each day and the third month passed by I was still shocked.  But, my love for you was solid, set firmly in place and locked....

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For half an hour Dix had rode true
when the canyon opened up wider.
In front of him five stubbly men
sat around a roaring fire.

The leader Dixon recognized,
as his sifted through Santa’s sack.
He was an outlaw known...

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My people set out sixty-six years and six months ago
Give or take; sure, liberties taken, but I'll give her back,
And if you want, they got a machine with occasional fact,
But back to forbodingly sixty-six years...

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I am getting old now, I can only turn over
They can’t get me to run, but I not all done.
My valves are leaking, I often misfire
My fuel gauge will sputter my heart will flutter
I go...

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This poet decided against  
becoming a measly minced meaty morsel

undetected inauspicious augury 
     assigning  adept 
     aqueous ace AOL amphibian, 
    ...

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I can't believe that I'm carrying your seed,
Something that I prayed would never happen to me.
I can't believe that I'm having a baby,
For someone who has ignorant chicks calling me.
I can't believe this: I'm so...

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Cuckoo Dancers

Discarded dusty beer bottle lying dormant on the tracks
Commuters await their carriage
Adorned in business like macks
Trees sway in gentle breeze
Capable of more tension,
Performing their shedding of leaves
Far too many to mention.
 
Pigeon jumps on pigeon
Mating...

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