Long Mauls 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.

This poem has also been titled "Epitaph for a Child of...

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Here We Shall Remain
by Tawfiq Zayyad
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Like twenty impossibilities
in Lydda, Ramla and Galilee ...
here we shall remain.

Like brick walls braced against your chests;
lodged in your throats
like shards of glass
or prickly cactus...

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First they came for the Muslims

after Martin Niemoller

First they came for the Muslims
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Muslim.

Then they came for the homosexuals
and I did not speak out
because I was...

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Cleansings
by Michael R. Burch

Walk here among the walking specters. Learn
inhuman patience. Flesh can only cleave
to bone this tightly if their hearts believe
that God is good, and never mind the Urn.

A lentil and a bean might...

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I opined to my father -


“Hey, Dad,” I quipped, bewilderedly, “last night, believe it or not, Grandpa Jake was watchin’ a film from prob’ly 1930...
When I glanced up from Facebook to determine why he’d growled,...

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Night Labor
by Michael R. Burch

for Rachel Corrie

Tonight we keep the flame alive;
we keep the candle lit.
We burn bright incense in your name
and swear we’ll not forget—
your innocence, your courage,
your commitment—till bleak night
surrenders to irrevocable dawn
and...

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When the police came with clubs, dogs, and fire hoses,                         ...

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A steel sky, wan and dull, littered
	With ragged clouds and
		bitter dregs of a world girding for
	Sleep
		But no rest
by day, draws a frame over grim roofs and vapid doorways.
Indolent breezes rustle debris past shuffling feet of
	Staggering...

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Written: September 06, 2023
I dream poetry                             ...

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Resourcing faith, resolve, resolve
conforming brace of how
consigning brackets of identity, not slow
the entry of concern, between friend's row!

Yet, still enduring, we are them, their vow
this loneness of reserve, the leader's power
conserves some owning of their...

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Love is won, then it conquers all through patience
But that's impossible without being kind
The two above build one to be honest
Suppressing all the feelings of jealousy
Silencing all tongues not to be boastful
Bruising egos that result...

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There's a viscerally vial creature loosed,
Which is heinously hideous and vicious.
This barbarian monstrosity destroys people's vitality and flesh,
By raping and pillaging their lives,
Killing and ravaging entire families and villages,
Forever cursing all those it consumes.
I've taken...

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When the skies break out with thunder
And pale ghosts the stars outnumber,
When the sword of lightning falls
And the owl of midnight calls,
When the ocean’s growl is gray
And dim hope has naught to say,
  ...

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Wading Weighting Waiting Room

Wading in thoughts, weighting words, 
fearfully here in this waiting room.

There's a compact slightly cracked 
music player by itself on a shelf. 

Someone largely in charge has 
shaped tape over its switches.

So...

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‘At play with words’

Cork thine eyes 
Cloaking lucent verbose halls 
Surely binding shutting tight 

Cork thine eyes 
Clutching goblet sipping falls 
Drunk seduction bending sight 

Prose mine prys 
Gather up my scrolling drawls 
Paging through...

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Recalling memories was difficult.
I presume, today was not my day.
Theme uprooted, I stood for the branches,
the spirit, the truth, the roots.
Do I see more than what was needed?

Only eyes to eyes speak without words, sound,
vision...

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Big brother on the corner and in the sky 
Big sister in the mixed bathroom
With a finger in your apple pie.
Credit cards only -no need for cash
the eagle has both talons on every greenback.
An unholy...

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Guilt...!

Guilt rides,
on the chariot of truth
and how long can it go forth?
It  obscures the facts 
and obliterates the figures and
peps-up and cooks it's own broth!

It feels so heavy, 
wears out the only one who is privy 
and...

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who, US?
by Michael R. Burch

jesus was born
a palestinian child
where there’s no Room
for the meek and the mild

... and in bethlehem still
to this day, lambs are born
to cries of “no Room!”
and Puritanical scorn ...

under Herod, Trump,...

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Lord, save this unholy Baptist!?
     Her lactation, like mother's juice,
slakes thirsty tongues with creamy gist.
     To flush her slick love-chamber's sluice,
with corkscrew thumbs, and practiced wrists,
 ...

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E mbers smoulder, earth sweats  
M an thinks that he made progress
B atters and mauls he, the mother naked
R epreive from where else, does she get!
A tlases many, of 21st century we require, to
C...

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Dignity of knife in hope or fright
cuts the outer edge of desire.Huddled
anxiety oversees the fringe bites

of comforts. The child you abandoned
on road becomes a tree I nurtured.
A leafy town grows in the calyx of capricious

impermanence....

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Evening turns to mime -
you emerge from its cameo artistry,
your dark unraveled hair cajoles
in a lamp shaded theater.

Moments clash together.
A denuding madness is ungloved,
a palpable heat mauls.

Long into the cleaving night
unsheathed and reckless,
flesh sings its...

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It was birds Yes Ducks !, Mallards no less
Flown down from Alberta that made this great mess !
I tried to stop them though I shivered in fear
They flew right on past me and landed right...

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You are not,
The machete that mauls the mound
That sends the ants scampering from the hill,
Preys to the threading feet and the hungered hens

You are not!
The gunpowder that blasts the barn
Heralding the angry bleats,
And inviting the...

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