Long Maimed Poems

You are a 15 year old girl;
so young and able;
stature small , petite short not tall,  they hardly see at the kitchen table;
And at school it's not cool;
you're chosen;
But not for love, just..
Lust;
you see...

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Remembering that day in May - when I became corporate prey
On this unforgettable day - an innocent child was thrown away
Last night as I lay in bed - I read the news here's what it...

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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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The Mirror

When I look in the mirror I don’t see me, I see who I used to be.  A little lost girl that was so abused and so misused, so ashamed of who she...

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                             Brahman Nemesis

    ...

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Reflecting in her garden sits a winsome little maid;
She holds a purple flower like the circlet that she made
And wrapped about her braids to grace her forehead like a crown;
Her thick and shining braids that...

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As I ascend the podium, a predator of piquant pontifications, my eyes ravage the assemblage of adversaries, their countenances a canvas of consternation and morbid fascination. The atmosphere is heavy with the miasma of malignant...

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 I am a Son of an African American
I run
my turmoils taints the history books
yet people give me evil looks
I run
I choose
Yet I am 
Black and blue, this is my physical hurt

Been given a name...

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No! you weren’t born
to be beaten
raped
chained to a life  bloodstained  ingrained with pain
wordless  worthless  voiceless  choiceless  

No! you can’t live
being beaten
raped
chained to a life  profaned  restrained ...

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Picture this.
Exploding pipe bombs.
Land fields that can take your arms off.
Driving off road, and frenzied, with excitement 
Adrenaline RAGING.
Oh, yes, Syrian Teenagers,
It is “Let’s See If We Are Really Alive” day.
Okay, we’ll let in some...

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a force for good
(for john coltrane and ahmed obafemi
based on ‘trane’s treatment of ‘nature boy’)

“…I wanna be a force for good…”
		-John Coltrane
 
…there was a man…
a very brave, enchanted man…
and he spoke of many things…
peace...

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Pittsburgh, hammertown, Chuck Knoll and his boys
established the best Superbowl Era dynasty
with the "Steel Curtain" defense and the "Blonde Bomber" Bradshaw,
a defense disciplined on shrapnel and elite ego,
"Mean Joe Greene" and Jack Lambert, a compulsive...

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The elderly, the injured,
The deficient, the mentally ill,
The sick, the chastened,
The weary, the suicidal,
The innocent, the broken,
The lost, lost, LOST ...
You are NOT there with them ... 
Only sadness and loss and pain.
The animals, the...

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My most troubling client
told me he died last night.

While this did not appear to be his somber case,
nor, sadly,
did my home office silently resound
like this was his actual historical peace,
I did conjure up sufficient energy
to...

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PTSD

Like rabbit in the headlight caught
I want to move, i know I ought
But quicksand stuck, I’m petrified 
My body still, arms laid by side
Stretched out on mattress, naked, soaked
From sweat in which my body’s cloaked
My eyes...

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Nexus had not yet reached the other side
When we started to enter in a wood
On which no any sign of pathway lied. 

No green fronds,, but grey dusky color stood;
No smooth branches, but all with...

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It’s been 36 days since you were dethroned 
You were the free-standing house, I was the fist that ripped the power line in half 
You’re the ouija board to my spirits of the past,
You keep...

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She's dying over and
over 
From the insanity of
the missing 
The heart will
repair 
Though I wouldn't
dare say this
At the sky she
stares
Continuously
She says life must
go on
I must go on
she says

I don't want to be
without him 
As she...

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growing up too soon

	you said: is there anything more excruciating than lagging behind
						being passed by
	a hasbeen
				still knocking on portals
twitching toes twirling thumbs
         in fidgety drawn-curtained waiting rooms

and...

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As I child, I wanted to go to heaven because I was terrified of hell. As I grew a little older and found out more about what heaven will be like, I wanted to go...

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On the day that I stop writing with passion, on the day when you see my name and it does'nt provoke an attraction, and on the day when I write a script to your disatisfaction,...

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As I transitioned from high school
to the University of Michigan,
one of the leading national health and safety issues
was painfully violent loss of Vietnamese and U.S. lives,
and hundreds of thousands hurt,
maimed for life,
if only on our...

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Razor sharp tongues unleashed 
Lashing out viciously to openly 
legitimise bigotry 
then suddenly taking offense 
when queried 
releasing long concealed weapons
the deep desire to "remodel Africans"
No intentions of acceptance in sight 
Spitting out venom faster...

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Villanelle: Who's afraid of the Virgin Wolf's wisdom tooth

(As unlikely as it may sound, this happens to be the TRUTH: the foremost French journalist, André FONTAINE of Le Monde; an illustrious  Academician poet, Pierre...

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Ali’s Song
by Michael R. Burch

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, child.
I flung...

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