Long Outliving Poems

Inferiority complex as a kid, adolescent and emerging adult

Yours truly (an amazingly,
gracefully, and markedly modest
passively aging baby boomer -
formerly introverted long haired
pencil necked geek),
prattling wordsmith doth behold
nostalgic memories regarding father
(Boyce Brandon Harris)
long ago lapsed decades

during...

Read More

' The gods' spake to all who had 'wide' ears...
but all they heard was Apollo's muse....'
   

How leavened my soul to search,
   
   wooly and wild to the waxxen...

Read More

Martial epigram translations

Epitaph for the Child Erotion
by Marcus Valerius Martial
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Lie lightly on her, grass and dew...
So little weight she placed on you.

I created the translation above after the Nashville Covenant...

Read More

Does God know the sorrows of man?

Does Faith relieve the burdens of sin?

She was worn out as she was worn in
Her spirit had no use for her body
Her eyes saw the face of death lurking
The...

Read More

How leavened my soul to search,
   
   wooly and wild to the waxxen wind,
   
   how swift my wings though my fancy yearns,

   catching sights...

Read More

Echoes Beyond Darkness

The visions swept my mind ever so constantly
Promising a new dawn upon every now and every then
Time seem lengthen amid the path of ancient mystery
And I was nevermore the poetic soul of a...

Read More

All efforts tabled on Nigeria;
Experiencing a fortunate miscarriage, 
Feasting Aso rock- a pizzeria 
But never admit it is the cause of this age. 

Upon the solid manifesto, 
That touches all sectors:
Picturing California's Barstow, 
To cajole...

Read More

timid, meek, and demure (effeminate) me,
essentially ruled the roost
regarding Harris household
sole son characterized vis a vis
presented passive resistant
outward nonestablishmentarian mold
worst case scenario
would witness Matthew Scott Harris
spending longevity old and feeble minded
at 324 Level Road

outliving parents,...

Read More

Beyond the grave of Beni Blue
was an aging twisting branching Yew
Young Beni liked to play and hide
as he did the day he died

In a forgotten graveyard corner it grew
hiding a doorway known by few
The thick...

Read More

Goodbye, Odie

My little old cat is dying.
His steps are awkward, eyes unfocussed
and he cries when he can’t see me.
I’m not sure I want to be in a world
that doesn’t have my tabby Familiar.
I am feeling...

Read More

My heart remains asleep, until you touch it... (poet)


You are the most' enigmatic existence,'
which will never be mine.
I remain a million waves away,
trying to make beauty from your scars.
Love is a reflective remedy in a...

Read More

Foremost On My Bucket List?

Yo yo ma...though your absence
doth suddenly cause me woe,
no matter parting with
many bittersweet sorrows
long since consciousness unstrung
more'n fourteen plus years ago,

the last surviving Kuritsky
grim reaper enviously eventually snatched,
outliving demise of my...

Read More

Trial and Terror

Tim had tried most everything else

	waiting hoping procrastinating

		meditation introspection ‘extro-neglection’

defence contraptions of all sorts and the 

	whole self-help spirit enclave palaver and yet 

		he still felt like a cadaver a rotting ‘thing’ of...

Read More

It wasn't a memory as such but a story, 
Recounted time and again by parents loving and proud.
Young men are too occupied chasing visions and fleeing demons 
To remember.
Middle age concerns lean towards practicality, keeping...

Read More

calling all mistreated jugglers
and wretches of condemned madhouses
bewitched by fingers of freak fame
the spindly fingers of trickster twins
that open the floodgates to occult caverns
unleashing the brusque wraiths

the brittle symmetry of her glacial eyes
cast down from...

Read More

I wake up and my room feels like it’s eighty-five degrees
My roommate is gone, not sure she will be coming back
No one is telling me anything, I am not stupid or dumb
Here comes my aid,...

Read More

If you had the option to be an immortal,
would you leap at the chance, or just let that go?
It sounds like a question that’s easy to answer,
but I’d recommend that you take it real slow.
Are...

Read More

The house wasn’t as old as my father,
However some parts were starting to creak,
He detested outliving my mother,
And  wanted a still house that didn’t speak.
His small bedroom window had a loose screw,
And it made...

Read More

skinny  children move quickly outliving
 the shadow of their slim suicides.

 running and skipping they celebrate lent 
with 
 the soles of their feet creating samba  
daylight vigil's on every corner.
 

now the...

Read More

You aren't my grandmother, only a friend, 
But I'll be so sad when you time here ends. 
Luminous blue eyes; hair like pearls in sunlight 
Your smile always greets me with avid delight. 

For ninety...

Read More

Drink the water of mountain brook
Sweet and clear, it fills you with joy
Try it once, very soon you’re hooked
Much like ale, in thirst, to enjoy

Ancient music, from ages gone by
Is like stream, crystal clear ’n...

Read More

I drove back in time to my childhood home-for a funeral
I sniffed around some old stomping grounds...
the "monkey trail" was an overgrown path that led to the baseball fields
next to the tracks where the trains...

Read More

A mountain sits
And a river flows
A mountain suffers her tears
And the infiltration of life

Wildflowers necklace it
As the goats dance up and down its rocky parts.
It can wiggle off snow as well as a buffalo a...

Read More

THE BALLAD OF MA POSSUM
Roofing like a penthouse floor,
Tis not a haunt but Ma's snore.
A wombatic possum in appearance,
Being nature's pinup is her arrogance.
Her distintictive, brush, bob tail, loss,
reputedly, respected as the boss poss.

Hearing her...

Read More

Trickle tender tears - those that take their time
born to bathe and baptize bereavement;
dew drops cling to fragile petals of forlorn feelings ~

aged and alone
sentiments from sorrowful soul slowly seeps
revived in rising rivers of rhythmic...

Read More