Long Mauling Poems

Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.



Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It's not that every leaf must finally...

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Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers I

I translated the first six Native American poems for my father when he chose to enter hospice and end his life by not taking dialysis …


Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I
loose translation/interpretation...

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To a Daughter More Precious than Gems
by Otomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Heaven's cold dew has fallen—
and thus another season arrives.
Oh, my child living so far away,
do you pine for me...

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The flames of the furnace (well-travelled by wind
slowly glazing the rags of gray women chagrined
at the sight of a hair fleeing tresses now thinned) 
sometimes billow like waves flooding naves through the night,
when the lightning...

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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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SELF PORTRAIT DEDICATED TO LEON TROTSKY (by Frida Kahlo)

                          ...

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In a little ultra Leftist bastion called Berkley
a congregation of American Libertarians came,
it was March 4th and proud patriots marched forth
in solidarity for America's freedoms,
celebrating inherent rights with gratitude
most of all the 1st Amendment was...

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Primose path leads to the slaughter of American
dream delete pause proficiency with internetty
webbegone after thoughts of yahoo googleyed 
interred intricacies that shed benign capsules of
 mom entary apple pie delquiences cooling 
the soul shopping for...

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The Souther farm stood back, a long way back 
from the road called Joe Long Arm.
The house was low and squat and huddled on the hill 
and it had laid there for eighty years.
Now the...

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I push my head out the car window
As far as I can reach
I’m on a ride
Through Beirut
Energized
Galvanized
Oblivious to the walls
Of restriction
On my soul
I lean out futhur
My hair wild and free
The wind making love to me
Caressing...

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Given as a gift from Germany to Kabul zoo in Afghanistan 
No fields to run in - just a miserable enclosed barren land
 
You were blessed with a beautiful lioness partner, Chucha
She must have made...

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Make haste to befriend the toro meanly reared away from spectator prying eyes
         by dread alone the bull is nurtured and prodded to terrify
   ...

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They packed their picnic basket s and journeyed towards the sun, with boxes of liquor, creates of beers and a drum fill with carbonated soda; busloads of them, drove down the slopes,  with dug...

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How can human deal with all the other animals with a sense of indisputable superiority? What makes them keep mollycoddling the mean motive of extracting from other animals as much as possible while paying little...

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*Image of A Fallen Smirk by DG.

Brace For Impact

Pillar of society, creme de la creme, important person,
   one to be reckoned by indeed.
One who's untouched by palls, frails near a radiant ray
 ...

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I’m so happy you could all come out
to walk these woods today,
it’s important that we commune with nature
and hear what she might say.
For the trees must be our brothers,
and the animals, sisters dear,
we must from...

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5/16/22



Here let me paint you a drawing
My skin crawling
Something stirring and calling
As the leaves begin falling
It's appalling
That people are always squabbling
And gossiping
Yet another mauling
It's no longer enthralling
The temperature of the water freezing or scalding
People aging,...

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Pain manifests deep inside my chest, 
Burning through me unforeseen.
Every bodily organ bursting to explode,
My heart, the lungs and spleen.

She lived inside, so delivered to an earthly reside, 
Which is now up for question.
Please, oh...

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The content of this poem is semi-graphic, so please be aware of that before you 
read.......


Yes, There Really Are Monsters

Growing up as a child, I never wanted to sleep alone.
Fearful of the isolated darkness and...

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I thought I had seen her face,
And looked again in the direction of the milk store,
There was our Angela ‘Andee’:
An empty shell of the previous girl
Who had bewitched our juvenile eyes
And spun our little heads...

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Growing up as a child I never wanted to sleep alone
In fear of the darkness and most of all the unknown
“Mommy is there monsters” I would commonly ask
Her reply was “only on Halloween, the ones...

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Written: January 30, 2025 for contest Sponsored by: Anoucheka Gangabissoon
                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dive...

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In a quiet night of deep sleep
The blankets harbor me – the night to unfold
A myriad of dreams my unspoken secrets keep
 As cinematic stories attempting to be told

The curtains open while orchestral music sweeps
Awakening...

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Throughout my life, the nightmares have come in phases.
At first it was the giant colored numbers and letters
never harming but always taunting vulnerabilities.
Swooping down from the sky just inches from my youth,
fitting because i was...

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When, on that craggy moorland verge,
you make your stand, body braced
      against the storms bullying bite;
when you permit the squall
          ...

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