Long Meagerly Poems

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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Swoon Song
by Michael R. Burch

In this ordinary swoon
as I pass from life to death,
I feel no heat from the cold, pale moon;
I feel no sympathy for breath.

Who I am and why I came,
I do not...

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No Particle Theory can ever be Unified – 
for there is always the space between...the
unknown that separates while binds us
in a matrix of primitive wonder. Dark
Matter is only dark to those accustomed to one
light...for those...

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Oh No Mister Bill! Not Another Car Repair!

Aside from vehicular insurance, you
must be aware another
reason car ownership
finds me being privy
to possessing Hyundai Sonata (2009)
title purposelessness too

raising a futile cry and hew
stems from accursedly unexpected
mechanical malfunctions...

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okay i have taken the bumpy road journey
i have paid for my bad and wrong everything and then some
i have watched, heard, and listened to other peoples' excitement
now it is my turn to feel the...

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There is such a chill.
I’d make use of my flesh
as a heart warmer if only
it hadn’t withered to naught.
Bone protrusions meddle with
the rags of skin that remain
to drape about them.
I feel shame board off
the windows...

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My pen is mourning the agonies and the sufferings
Of my people, who are drowning in the sea of misery.
My keyboard' strokes are shadowing the slow rhythms
Of the wandering beggar, who's lost in the sanctuary.

My voice...

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These chains of deceit that bind me to this hardwood seat. 
I bend and break the bars that confine, but they remain, like the haughty, jagged grin of an eroded skull. 
Such good times as...

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Even good persons will be judged for their character,
for not having done enough when they could have;
ah, the judgment of the condemned will be harsher... 
some believe it's a bluff, and they continue to misbehave!...

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Even good persons will be judged for their character
for not having done enough when they could have,
ah, the judgment of the condemned will be harsher; 
some believe it's a bluff, and they continue to misbehave....

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Content in my reason, I indulge my future distress
Feckless friends and fiends lie...together
Our homemade misery surmounts
Indeed, we do have a habit of making habits

This Intention for contention is our invention
A fleet of reckless daggers flow...

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The elements of the heavens above
Where the birds go swaying and dipping down
And the clouds mist their way along the sky
There the dark sky shrouds the moon with a gown

In awe I spread my arms...

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Two sons had equal

shares, younger squandered and lived

a lowly life, he returned

and begged forgiveness

father rejoiced with a feast

asked irked eldest, discernment


*As scriptured.
The younger son lived a flamboyant and wicked life and when he had lost...

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In this place I passed today
Were the many faces unknown to me
From the corner of my eye I spied 
A man of strangest seemingly so out of place 
He walked with his head drawn down...

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I don’t know what you might have heard,
But I love God because He is the word.

Through His words the world was created,
And if only meagerly here’s how we’re related.

I use words to create each and...

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Worn and withered
Are his eyes
A lonely old soul, pale at heart and meagerly
Driven
Brought down so low
Worn to emptiness
Aside the sadness
He lives in his mind
A hard place to climb
Amongst the webs of his defenseless history
His lips...

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And who am I?
Am just another man with another name
With dreams bigger than his height
Hopping for the best
Trying harder to keep the faith
But fire rains on him
The man who prays for refuge
Come tomorrow, lions still...

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All England, blinking nervously, is out! 
A little mild spell, much to our surprise, 
has brightened frowsy February skies. 
We sniff the air with nostrils schooled in doubt. 

Baffled by balm, the fruit trees have...

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My air conditioner goans 
In the noon day summer’s heat 
While unseen… except to me 
I watch winter running about 
Seeking shelter 
In the far shady left corner 
Of my meagerly furnished living room 

Occasionally...

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Alphabet soup

. for public domain

A freshly polished silver spoon easily whirls
warm pasta letters in a China bowl,
while Poetry struggles meagerly
to stir his spirit, enrich his soul.

He rather would want for food than words, 
a rhyme,...

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