Long Malady Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch

If brevity is the soul of wit
then brevity and levity 
are the whole of it.
—Michael R. Burch

To write an epigram, cram.
If you lack wit, scram!
—Michael R. Burch

Conformists of a feather
flock together.
—Michael...

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Epigrams

Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It’s not that every leaf must finally fall,
it’s just that we can never catch them all.

Piercing the Shell
by Michael R. Burch

If we strip away all the accouterments of war,
perhaps we'll discover...

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Long in the tooth male doth recount, reflect, reimagine...
his woebegone damn dental daze today May 5th, 2021 

No particular rhyme nor reason
garden variety indentured flunky (me)
revisits his salmagundi salad days, 
when oral blight smote 
left...

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Please help yarn hexed door neighbor...

Yours truly pinned down by invisible 
vestiges of coronavirus and
getting attacked from angry plague 
of buttons, plus huge spools of yarn
grossly mistook me for human sock 
to seal and line...

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Wergle Flomp Good Humor 2023

The following constitutes a rather 
twisted as a pretzel SUBTITLE:

I dash with my jiggling boobs in an attempt to escape... 
being overrun by teddy bears and beanie babies
while carrying out heavy...

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The plane looked old and fairly worn,
the sky was grey, about to storm.
They hurried us along the aisles,
in tiny seats we’d sit for miles.

With creak and groan we taxied out,
at runway’s end we turned about.
With...

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Across figurative and literal blackened white board...

Where death of democracy writ large,
nevertheless psychological strength predominates
unlike earlier chapters of mein kampf.

Mine hardscrabble existential debacle 
spelled losing game
swept me up in malevolent mindset 
far adrift from harbored...

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primary idiopathic palmar/
palmoplantar hyperhidrosis
despite taking  Glycopyrrolate 
2 MG Tablet three times daily.

Aforementioned physiological malady
the bane worse than death
unwanted and unwonted figurative
(metaphorical) beast of burden
linkedin with matrix constituting mine
corporeal essence genetically
gifted to yours truly,
invariably, objectionably,...

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Your voice kisses the breath of the morning wind
Snapping in the solemnity that bears a cry unto God.
Angels have come to earth; that in slumber seemed,
Like the wind creaking among the faith we once had.

Life...

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I heard the universal sound of aum (pronounced ohm)...
while being quarantined inside our own invisible bubble

Transcendent meditations
while athwart oblate spheroid
allow, enable, and provide
deft capability deciphering
snap, crackle and pop
accepted as mere static
to the untrained ear.

Each inaudible...

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I cannot single handedly – rightly so - manage...
primary idiopathic palmar/
palmoplantar hyperhidrosis
despite taking  Glycopyrrolate 
2 MG  Tablet three times daily.

Aforementioned physiological malady
unwanted and unwonted figurative
(metaphorical) beast of burden
linkedin with matrix constituting mine
corporeal essence...

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* Bringing this gem back in the hope Becca Teagan sees it and returns. We wrote this together, a labor of love. The poem ends with a moral lesson that humanity still hasn't learned, sadly.

...

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I cannot single handedly manage...
primary idiopathic palmar/
palmoplantar hyperhidrosis

Aforementioned physiological malady
unwanted and unwonted figurative
(metaphorical) beast of burden
linkedin with matrix constituting mine
corporeal essence genetically
gifted to yours truly,
invariably, objectionably, and unquestionably
afflicts, impacts, and upsets
emotional (mental) health
diagnosed with schizoid...

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Sane sexagenarian scribe seeks asylum in Canada...

should Trump swindle electorate by hook or crook,
(1003 days, 9 hours, and
32 minutes until 2024 election),
yours truly steels, girds, braces... himself,
and plots serious outlook
pondering exiting United States
(stage door left)
while...

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LITERAL SENSE :

Concrete counterintuitive ratioed for looser and Leader;
Interim arguments to know who's worst and best person,
Makes no sense either.
Itemised unique personalities need no prejudice session. 
Sparked to negate fallacious  rudiments; deal art.
Trumpling down...

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A (growing) menagerie of stuffed animals And Beanie Babies

The following doth constitute
combination of fact and fiction
unfortunately not sentences
referencing overactive spousal glute
though sphincter roaring
could muscle us into ample loot
(after wife explodes open bank vault)
versus ass spire...

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Her  m a d n e s s  was the result of an unfortunate series of events. The epilogue came to a halt as she was  b r o k e n...

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Montgomery County Pennsylvania housing choice voucher...
eligibility predicated upon mandatory fingerprinting

Courtesy anticipatory anxiety
breeds palmar hyperhidrosis
(i.e. hands adrip
with profuse perspiration)
honest to dog truthfully
most inconvenient malady

holds Earthling (yours truly)
in precarious emotional balance
me silently screaming
against ill fated physiological disorder
also...

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X Continues Marking Many Spots
                        by Odin Roark

Anonymous living suits many,
gypsy fever...

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You throw a rock into a pool.

Watch the concentric ring slowly expand
from its point of origin.
Its curvature infinite. Shape pristine.
And yet... there it dissipates
at the subtle sternness of the wind.
To blend with all the other...

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This is my modern English translation of a French poem by Voltaire, one of my all-time favorite writers. The poem is followed by two translations of epigrams by Voltaire.

Les Vous et Les Tu (“You, then...

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This dread disease that has afflicted my home, 
This malady, this plague on my house;
This making convertible the former quaintness and provincialism thereof 
Into something wholly despicable and disgustingly homogeneous,
Yclept "cosmopolitanism," and "worldliness," and "globalization,"...

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My thoughts are blinking quickly deep in my brain. I’m happy you decided to join me, I’m so glad you came. If I didn’t pour my feelings out I think I’d go insane, well except...

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K167 and K168 of CANTO XVII of the THIRUK-KURAL with Translations and Commentary

[Here, again, in these two couplets Thiru-Valluvar is having the time of his life making his followers dread the consequences of what he...

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Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) -

Our beloved youngest daughter Shana Aubrey
(endearingly called “Shayne Punim”)
still feels under the weather,
with symptoms centered around gastrointestinal tract,
though she lives in Bend, Oregon
(experienced her pseudo autonomy
before she completed eighteen Earth...

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