Long Mutilations Poems

Auschwitz Rose
by Michael R. Burch
											
There is a Rose at Auschwitz, in the briar,
a rose like Sharon’s, lovely as her name.
The world forgot her, and is not the same.
I still love her and extend this sacred...

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Poems about Things that Break I
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

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Poems about Things that Break III
 
These are poems about things that break and/or shatter: a bubble, glass, a mirror, a twig or tree limb, a thunderstorm, cities and towers in times of war, old...

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Prose Poems II
by Michael R. Burch

These are prose poems (is that an oxymoron?) and experimental poems...



briefling
by Michael R. Burch

manishatched, hopsintotheMix, cavorts, hassex (quick!, spawnanewBrood!); then, likeamayfly, he’s suddenly gone: plantfood.



bachelorhoodwinked
by Michael R. Burch

u are charming...

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These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems about the earth, climate change, global warming, extinction events, and mankind's role on an endangered world ...



Polish
by Michael R. Burch

Your fingers end in talons?
the ones you trim to...

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No! you weren’t born
to be beaten
raped
chained to a life  bloodstained  ingrained with pain
wordless  worthless  voiceless  choiceless  

No! you can’t live
being beaten
raped
chained to a life  profaned  restrained ...

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Phoenix and Phoenicia

They had both been victims of their own sad minds stories lost told and untold
narratives to be re-authored livid experience lived in silence meaning smeared in
crusted mud slung in terminal slots shots executed...

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Unlikely Mike
by Michael R. Burch

I married someone else’s fantasy;
she admired me despite my mutilations.

I loved her for her heart’s sake, and for mine.
I hid my face and changed its connotations.

And in the dark I danced—slight,...

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Against communist Vietnam a war was waged 
For almost twenty years fierce fighting raged 
The French came first then the U. S. arrived
Communism had grown and it had thrived.

Most American soldiers served with distinction
Carrying out...

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I have a poem for peace to the world
A poem that’ll spread the message with its fires
Towards the planets with holocausts or killings
A poem that’ll talk about reality amongst the 
Communities tortured and marginalized
A poem...

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Tiny Window to the World



Marooned in the consuming gloom
Cut away from escape or from egress
Between me and the Wild World
Ly a tiny window
Through which I espy the world
By an open vista to teeming life 
Sprawling...

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There is a star for every
shattered dream
every time a person breaks
a star is added to the endless canvas
of the sky
and as I stand

Breathe

and stare at those fond memories
above me-
I collapse with the weight of it...

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A bedroom should be pleasant
a place where futures are conceived
where wonderful dreams in their effervescence are woven and believed.

when dreams aren't loved, supported and nurtured,
they are cast aside along with the future.
weeds now grow instead...

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from the everlasting scrap yard of common decency

and the slaughter fields of raging battles never won

the stench of broken values rises in foul smelling loss

perfumed no doubt by the false values and belief of

glory fame...

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Retreated in the darkness
Of broken fears,
Your palace found broken
At the bottom of a well.
Well,
What good is it anyhow?
To allow the sweet surge
Of electricity and sweat
After decades of anticipation.
Anticipating the unknown.
The most anticipated 
That has ever...

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Our skin maybe different colors, but everyone's blood is red
Our hearts maybe different, they all pump the same color of blood
It is our life source, that kept us alive
God know this, as he knows every...

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There is an old ranch outside of El Paso in New Mexico
No windmills, not a drop of water, sits on the Mexican border
No horses or cattle, not a cowboy does it employ
Used to be a...

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Dangerous Visions

I see you and you see me. 
We are not free anymore. 
Or at least that is your intent. 
You place the bonds...
you brought with you, 
on all that will willingly take them... 
However,...

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Before the blast in April's darkened sky. . .  
before the electrifying surge of insurgency -
when trucks and tanks were used to block the roads, and
when men and even boys were sought to aid...

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hey pete
by Michael R. Burch
 
hey pete,
it's baseball season
and the sun ascends the sky,
encouraging a schoolboy's dreams
of winter whizzing by;
go out, go out and catch it,
put it in a jar,
set it on a shelf
and then...

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I am being forced to live
With horrible malformations
On my body
In my body
I am stuck with them for years
For who knows how long

The people want me dead
Simply for existing
They claim it is in the name of...

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It was an ordinary house, so I had no fear when they said come in.
A suburban house with a red door, like many others in the area.
I saw no one, but I knew they were...

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He would never forget the raindrops knocking on his coffin,
painfully screaming in a postpartum (from life) depression, 
nor would he forget the stiffness of his entire body 
banging on the wood as the carriage was...

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Mirror melted, and I enclosed in solid space of ice
Intersperse images, direlict of other's maiming vice.
Mimicry is not a benign deceit as you would think
Incontestable illusions brought my race to this brink
Cramped with penury and...

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She has belief
without comprehension
and in her crutchwork shack
she is
much like us . . .

tamping the bread
into edible forms,
regarding her children
at play
with something akin to relief . . .				

ignoring the towers ablaze
in the distance
because they are...

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