Long Mislaid Poems

Various Heresies 4

I, Lazarus
by Michael R. Burch

I, Lazarus, without a heart,
devoid of blood and spiritless,
lay in the darkness, meritless:
my corpse?a thing cold, dead, apart.

But then I thought I heard?a Voice,
a Voice that called me from...

Read More

Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV Part Two
                 II

The first signs reek tell-tale
Buffer-to-buffer...

Read More

Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV
 Part One                     ...

Read More

Don't mess with me I'm an the epiphany
 I'm about to sneeze, I ain't no sleeves
Better watch it
Yo, yourself check 
yourself relinquished yourself 
wrecked yourself
 to be built I'm blessed
 admitting it or not I'll...

Read More

We have tree traditions,
still accessible in diverse backward
and forward
reforesting cultures,
of planting a commemorative tree
when a great and portentous series of loving events
comes to its untimely rest.

Recently
my middle son's lifetime friend
decided it was time to travel...

Read More

Enough Angelina, drop the bouquet of harebells.  
The flowers wilt as your graying hands stiffen. See, how grave
is our newborn son. We gift him a black crêpe layette.
Say Darling Edward, say, Golubushka, make me...

Read More

The Ghost Train

North Wind, it was a howling, the sky was black as guilt
Malevolent the sheen, where upon her  moonbeams spilt
Through the murky distance, her belly glowing bright
Roaring down the line, she was roaring...

Read More

Night of the full moon

Whale fish are most adept at swimming around in a shot glass but glass goblets are preferred by dolphins whose long dorsal fin opts for wide open rimmed spaces. Stingrays desire...

Read More

“Stroke-a-back
stroke-a-back
someone’s going to touch you
in a moment from now,
I’ll draw the snake
but I won’t end it.”   
                ...

Read More

Book cause I spend an inordinate amount of time reading...

out loud.

As a hypothetical argument 
yours truly doth not aim
to be unfortunate recipient
of misguided, misjudged, and mislaid blame,
nevertheless I make dubious claim
and baldly recede (ha –...

Read More

Behold the abominable annals of the Storm domicile,
A living, groaning edifice of lumber and bureaucratic despair—
Where Allen Storm, the paternal prodigal of procedural pedantry,
Treads upon its creaking floors with the rigor of a misfiled memo,
And...

Read More

She crept through darkness
In the graveyard she dug
Looking for her love
Her one and only love

Her heart pumps scarlet drops
As her eyes search for the sorrow
Of black birds flying
Soaring through the gray clouds

She walks alone
In an...

Read More

I endure the pang of solitude...the sigh of a forlorn love
Time is no healer, every sand of time brings in moments
I hasten to go- halves with none but You, 
My confidant, my best soul mate
To...

Read More

In The Image Of Dust To Dust,
 Kipling tribute poem

In the image of dust to dust
    rests the dark mankind fears
      yet in its horrors, face we...

Read More

When you sort decades of electric cables from that box hidden away

It reminds of disentangling neurons haphazardly fired at random

	It’s a beautiful day and you’re in it among sea saw and hammer


Hundreds of screws in...

Read More

We decided to turn Paradise into real estate.
Trouble was, we weren’t too sure where to find it,
Though experts had located it somewhere
Slightly west or east (left or right, looking north)
Of a point midway between the...

Read More

Married for eleven years
It began simply, with daily tears

It wasn’t always bad
Yet on most days I felt terribly sad

The good times were great
No indication of our eventual fate

Together we spawn two children
Early in life they...

Read More

If I had it once and now I have not
Then what was it I had and now I have not
Could I touch it or hold it and feel,  I fear not
It was neither cold...

Read More

A raging sun raised over the sky so bright, kindled upon
The earth desired for thirst, the first ray hold upon,
By the crops reaped over the farm so baked -
Steamed by the nature so distressed,
The flared...

Read More

Blasphemy…cloud over their hearts of gold
Their value gradually diminishes…their weapons turn to mold
Serenity…deserted them and neglected them like orphans 
Their joy rapidly wears out…they mislaid their abundant portions

They yearn,
“RESTORE the walls of Jericho!”

Anguish…shadows over their...

Read More

Sr. Faustina had prayed...
for souls to be un-decayed

her Divine Mercy crusade--
was for a long time delayed

her cool Diary -- forbade!
its publishers, too afraid!!

its devotees, all dismayed
but the Marians obeyed :)

its Message refused to fade,
and the...

Read More

Today's lesson..

Pastor Jason couldn't understand it, he had heard about his father's upcoming wedding a week before the event, though he disapproved of the bride to be,a glaring age difference, he still would wish his...

Read More

Written: September 16, 2023
______________________________________________________________

In arrant essence, without a fight,
Herald of vamps, in the dead of night
Ushers a raw wave that captivates,
The heights of the cosmos resonate.

Wax in our ears, the truth we long to hear,
Despite...

Read More

Pretty double dipping fingers,
smooth peanut butter skin quality
Jelly coated lies that lip lingers ... 
has a heart so sticky and slippery

Welcoming the curious to come take a bite of guise,
lust smeared desire tasted between white...

Read More

When we walk the campus
			to what used to be the center,
			we might miss the venerable place.
			Taller piles of brick and towers
			obscure the central space
			of Western Pennsylvania brownstone.
			Who hasn’t heard the poet moan:
			“Present concerns shroud the...

Read More