Long Neon Poems

The weight of the water is heavy in my chest, a force pressing against the ribs. It rises when I don’t expect it, like a flood breaking through cracked, neglected seams. The truck of my...

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Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds (I)



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as hummingbird wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching...

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Red light, the neon beer sign on the distant wall reflects off the long expanse of polished bar top, overpowering the quiet brown wood. It’s after lunch, only a few people in to stir the...

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I used to slit my arms open like I was peeling fruit—careful, slow, watching the skin give way like wet paper. The box cutter blade was dull, sticky from God knows what—maybe dried glue, maybe...

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I am an Outlander
Who lives on a high hill
Overlooking a man-made lake
That once was a rapidly rushing river
Along whose banks the Ozarks Bluff Dwellers and the Osage and then Delaware
Hunted, fished, and created shelter
For their...

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UNCLE ELDON 


Now that I am old,  I see more clearly through my mind's eye, than I did in my youth, all those special people who played such a wonderful part in my life....

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Colin is a cabby with a proper taxi cab
He drives for all the passengers an Uber didn’t grab
Which means he has a lot of time to kill most every day
And lots of evil folk to...

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Climbing from the sands, velociraptors turn as one
Triceratops and stegosaurs arise to share the fun
And then they march en masse toward that briny maelstrom
And Adam Adams yells, “They’re heading back where they came from!”

Suddenly, so...

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1—Milieu

Unique construction of body and mind
My niche in human pack not quickly found 
Raw young heart of a curious design
The empty mirrors for my soul abound

Subjectively a bit odd to myself
A jangled, disconnected kind of...

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Boob jobs and bomb jobs

Sisters in arms those tits and those weapons of massive 
destruction sex and death go together in dynamics
thermodynamics psychodynamics fused on the playground 
of this life of this poem on which...

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You’re up close and personal
Hold up, I’m trying to stand tall
Lift me up before I fall
Tell me just for a minute
If you love me bit by bit
I’m just screaming aloud in this pit,
Tears falling out...

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Blind Man’s Five-Legged Dog Rap 

Yo, gather 'round the table, let me spin you a tale, 'Bout a blind man named Benny, he was never frail. Owned a dog with five legs, yeah, you heard...

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Word Fantasy in F Sharp Minor  (3 Movements)

1

(Andante con moto)

Hey man. Take this.

I got it last night,
under a fractured street light,
with shattered pieces of clear glass, scattered
at the nexus of an obscure dark freeway...

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act i:
walk down the strip, the neon lights casting a gaudy glow on the fray. i meet my dealer, a facilitator of welcome distraction, and we exchange nods. i take a bump, and the rush...

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I am at the edge of the sea...of the sea...
I am falling apart as we opened the door
Follow me...follow me...come follow me…
Even in our departure, we are on the shore

I am the queen of the...

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I am at the edge of the sea...of the sea...
I am falling apart as we opened the door
Follow me...follow me...come follow me…
Even in our departure, we are on the shore

I am the queen of the...

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Perhaps like me, you have heard the expression,                           ...

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The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Chapter L.A.

I like to think of [the habit] as a bonfire or a lighthouse, so that light can shine out into places where there are no resources and there isn’t...

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i wanted it...my God i wanted it

...but how do you do that...

                                        

         ...

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In glamor-light of sunset
a new crowd of cumulus clouds arrive
and revive a sepia sky-scene—
unworldly woolgatherers gather
spinning fantasy fluff into quixotic yarns
of debutantes dancing with honeymoon hunger;
their dewy eyes blurred by the sawdust of stardust

pseudo-princess-pleasure-seekers
—drama daring...

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The bar is tacky and unclean. The lighting early modern neon.
dead insects litter glowing tubes.
I found him in the corner nursing an empty glass.

“Are you recording this?”
“Yes.”
“Good, very good”

“Let’s get started then. Are you a...

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My roommates Leong, Sophie, (Charles) and I were coming from a Yale sporting event. The sky looked like a dirty Swiffer-mop and the wind seemed to be ignoring the posted 20mph speed limit. It was...

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The Killing Field”

Ariana nodded, tremolo fingers,
and they ran across the killing field,
watching the steel-toed kite ascend—
a fleeting instant of triumph in the vacuum.
Josh scoffed as it dipped,
both caught in the pull of the abyss,
falling but...

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The Killing Field”

Ariana nodded, tremolo fingers,
and they ran across the killing field,
watching the steel-toed kite ascend—
a fleeting instant of triumph in the vacuum.
Josh scoffed as it dipped,
both caught in the pull of the abyss,
falling but...

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A big shoutout and thank you to Tom Woody for being an amazing collaborator on this epic project. Also, a huge thank you to Sam Scott and Sara A for your stellar narration that truly...

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