Long Oafish Poems

Here and Hereafter
by Michael R. Burch

Life’s saving graces are love, pleasure, laughter ...
wisdom, it seems, is for the Hereafter.



Laughter’s Cry
by Michael R. Burch

Because life is a mystery, we laugh
and do not know the half.

Because death...

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Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers IV



Neglect
by Michael R. Burch

What good are your tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is your concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm...

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Poems about Children V

Pan
by Michael R. Burch

Among the shadows of the groaning elms,
amid the darkening oaks, we fled ourselves

Once there were paths that led to coracles
that clung to piers like loosening barnacles

where we cannot return,...

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These are the best sports poems by Michael R. Burch, Part V

Just Smile
by Michael R. Burch

We'd like to think some angel smiling down
will watch him as his arm bleeds in the yard, 
ripped off by...

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Squire - a recollection of war
I'm twenty seven years old
Not, old by any standard
But, in my world...I'm seven
Seven years removed from an IED
Seven years away from the day that changed me
Seven years into my new...

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The glory of America, now heats up 
   with agitation poised to strike on the brink 
sans legislation incites humiliation, 
    which goads desecration fete accompli chink 
  ...

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Dump Trump – a lump n prowl lot terror re: hot

The tattered glory of America, now heats up
with agitation poised to strike on brink
arty choked Jerusalem legislation incites humiliation,
which goads desecration fete accompli chink
in armor...

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The glory of America, now heats up 
   with agitation poised to strike on the brink 
sans legislation incites humiliation, 
    which goads desecration as fete accompli chink 
 ...

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I'm twenty seven years old
Not, old by any standard
But, in my world...I'm seven
Seven years removed from an IED
Seven years away from the day that changed me
Seven years into my new life
We were on a routine...

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Our unhinged president,
(a veritable loathsome miscreant)
cannot get away with murder,
nor will mine paltry poetic
(side winding) gambit
help clinch deserved punishment
for leader of free world hell bent
on destroying civilization.

Nevertheless cathartic and therapeutic
to craft (ala literary blitzkrieg)
sentiments lambasting...

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Axe the old Don, a trump peter n piper
   of incredulous hellish crud - be gone
ha air brushed pompous arse
   Sunkist in Macy's window 

   then like a jackal...

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Joseph Robinette Biden
now commander in chief yay
manning ship of state
tossing anchors aweigh
heavily pierced tattooed
donning sheepish pirate(s)
at heady roiling waterway
fending off trolling rapscallion
much more thrilling

than watching cabaret
January twenty first two thousand
twenty one marks his first full...

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I established a rapport 
with the Sacred Cow
and it stepped all over my toes
the oil of anointment in my crankcase
I was limping worthy of an asterisk
an army of monks couldn't keep me pure
laughing all the...

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The Conference at Mantua

Ah, what a scene of tranquil learnedness! 
The scholars nurse their tomes like babes in arms: 
white locks: heads cocked to savor the address 
of Pius, in his charming Latin: balm 

floats...

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We’d like to think some angel smiling down
will watch him as his arm bleeds in the yard,
ripped off by dogs, will guide his tipsy steps,
his doddering progress through the scarlet house
to tell his mommy “boo-boo!,”...

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Well done Arsenal, we DID secure fourth place
In Europe's elite we've saved some face
Though we sold our rivals the title race
With that sweet spot on van pursy's lace

We left it late, but what a run
As...

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Briars scrape my flailing hand,
a fly drones overhead.
Prickly hedges drip with beads of squashed black fruit
basking in a sticky sun-lit mist.
Down this quaint unearthly country lane I tread.
Some strange presence, a mockingbird sixth sense
casts its...

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Narcissism shows its ugly head in so many ways
Sharp put-downs to show one’s superiority
A heightened sense of one’s importance, and
Usurping, whenever possible, another’s authority.

Self-deceiving, and never able to admit defeat
Being in love with themselves, misplaced...

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Three sisters - two as lovely as the dawn,
the third, a travesty of face and form
and we - a trio of fine gentlemen,
(to all but former flames, who'd disagree!)

Like Musketeers, we fellows made a set...

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How pity! How tingly! How niggling to hear!
Ah! Some lousy bee has bitten you!
That delicate muscle of your upper-arm,
While on your house’s roof, leaving clothes to dry!
Have you rubbed over with knife and thrown the...

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Listening to the lapping of the waves
complementing the murmurs of bench folks. 
Doves are cooing, pigeons are scurvy knaves
patrolling the sand, clumsy oafish crooks!
Trade winds gentle on your skin, lover's kisses.
Wedding parties come and go,...

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At the steering wheel,
I am inanely awed
by how my car greedily gulps down
into its hood that interminable stretch
of gray highway snaking out as a huge,
obsidian conveyor belt
from the edge of the earth
where the rim of...

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My buddy who was quite oafish and wasn't to keen 
   decided to drive his old clunker of a car
   that didn't have any seats to be seen.
   So...

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