Long Octopi Poems

Currents
by Michael R. Burch

How can I write and not be true
to the rhythm that wells within?
How can the ocean not be blue,
not buck with the clapboard slap of tide,
the clockwork shock of wave on rock,
the...

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Nucleotidings
by Michael R. Burch

“We will walk taller!” said Gupta,
sorta abrupta,
hand-in-hand with his mom,
eyeing the A-bomb.

“Who needs a mahatma
in the aftermath of NAFTA?
Now, that was a disaster,”
cried glib Punjab.

“After Y2k,
time will spin out of control anyway,”
flamed...

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I once walked into my backyard
and found two slugs mating in a bucket
I had just learned how slugs go about mating, 
or trust-I would have been rightly confused

Here hangs a long line of slime, almost...

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Skinned shins on tree skins,
Space-viewed landscapes of rust and paint 
Showing mirrored continents imagined; 
Worlds within worlds at every turn, 
Outlines of Octopi on Oil slicked streets;
Every post and pole or stone a step:
Sat on,...

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A baby gorilla's bedtime is a harmonic period when the bananas line up with little leaf rattles to softly croon to slumber the furry ball. Priceless is the process of pacification and pacifications are not...

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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...

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Adding many components to a stew today? Flavours? Chopped out pieces? How many pieces? Go on how many? It is never the question of how many components that are within the granules that will decide...

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A nine mile shift with a roadrunner penguin is not really a relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon. And to hop on a squire bus and sing is often best achieved by the gatherings...

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A fine dining experience is simply NOT living within means. How rather tragic then said sparrow.

Catacombs in an x shape are often x rated chambers filled with sleeping custard coloured vermin who prey on youthful...

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A weblike interior is not a gut feeling. It is an erosive quantity of golden hue with the goldsmith involved being the mind's eye. Mindful mindsets mingling many manuscripts momentarily. Regardless of format and zone....

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- The Goodbye Goose-               
Winter polishes at four o'clock, shining all the rocks aglaze.   
Reflection, stretching shadows.  ...

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Awaking each day greatly awed to what's in store
Birds that chirp and sing at my back door

Clouds that constantly change from whispy, gray
Dart or stay cover the sky or float away

Every created natural item brings...

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A very quick quack
The purpose of a porpoise is to whirl backwards in a spotty boat but the purpose of a penguin is to glide on a jet ski. Informational weather beam probes probability but...

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Using a bucket and spade as a pillow can be as symbolic as cuddling a goose. But wrestling with a carpet cleaner can often be quite a hazardous act filled with semi reluctant fumes. And...

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Silence settles to sleep.
It carries me on wings of dream-
               to fall to mystic seas, where
     ...

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The Octopi Jars
by Michael R. Burch

Long-vacant eyes
now lodged in clear glass,
a-swim with pale arms
as delicate as angels'...

you are beyond all hope
of salvage now...
and yet I would pause,
no fear!,
to once touch
your arcane beaks...

I, more alien than...

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You may consider it extremely odd
I’m so easily influenced by a cephalopod
Eight arms, three hearts, blue blood, nine brains
All unique, yet something else remains
The most important fact on which to think?
Cephalopods, like poets, possess special...

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Miniature Bats with big blinky eyes batting butterscotch kisses
Baby belly flop Frogs that happily hop and squiggling Lilliputian Octopi
Tiny hats on Teensy Teddy Bears casting star bright wishes
Squeezable short-legged Dinky Dogs that are eating Pie-In-The-Sky

Lil'...

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Yesterday I found a worm in my apple.
Well, half a worm.
C’mon life, take the gloves off.
You’re better than that.
I like to think we’re still friends, though.
Well, at least there are no hard feelings on my...

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Octopuses have a REM-like sleep.
Just like you and I, and dogs!
Their eyes gyrate wildly from side to side.
They twitch and intertwine their eight long legs.
Their suckers glitch the grip.
The colors on their bodies do a...

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If fifteen pigeons circle a chimney it is no time to light fires. It would be very very dangerous indeed. Feather fires flake flames finale. And a sweep of soot is not an avenue of...

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If fifteen pigeons circle a chimney it is no time to light fires. It would be very very dangerous indeed. Feather fires flake flames finale. And a sweep of soot is not an avenue of...

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We used to have a lunch lady
who was so very mean.
She was also very ugly,
and she was never clean!

She was hairy as a monkey!
Revolting as a skunk!
And unlike typical ladies,
she really, really stunk!

So I talked...

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Fish - put in pail,
then start to descale,
then gut its guts out,
sizzle in oil, turn it about,
some salt and pepper,
have it for supper!

Now,how do you cook a crab?
First, by its pincers grab,
then dump it in...

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sea life havens
red grouper swim
octopi hide
…coral playgrounds

Mariana
world’s deepest trench
first sightings made
…unknown species



* The Mariana Trench or Marianas Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean about 200 kilometres (124 mi) east of the Mariana Islands;...

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