Long Overlong Poems

Heat Lightening
by Michael R. Burch

Each night beneath the elms, we never knew
which lights beyond dark hills might stall, advance,
then lurch into strange headbeams tilted up
like searchlights seeking contact in the distance . . .

Quiescent unions...

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My Halloween party was in full swing. I had gone all out this year and rented an old crumbling, reputed-to-be haunted mansion for the evening's Dionysian festivities, and all the invited guests were present and...

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49 years past; a puppy was bought, picked up out of his pen on a pet shop floor;
he had honey brown eyes & an inquisitive way. He grew to be so loyal and true, how...

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These are modern English translations of ancient Egyptian Harper's songs. 

Harper's Song: Tomb of Djehutiemheb
translation by Michael R. Burch

The sky is opened for you,
the earth opened for you, 
for you the good path leads into...

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Devotion Poem, The Black Dahlias


This morning, for a time, you seemed
To have disappeared.  I called out to you
From my bed, but the words
Must have been consumed into mute syllables, 
For any answering voice, if...

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The Slug

The slug is one of God’s creatures.
In his home in the forest land
He keeps the ground cleared with his crunching.
That’s  a good thing and I understand.

But why does he come to my garden
To...

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Translation

So something has happened and you are not quite sure
What it is your woman is thinking
Don’t be confused or fret overlong
You only need a translation.
Just look at the words without the distraction
The emotion of the...

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Pulling up in front of the address on the girl’s information,
I wondered again why I could not decline her invitation.
I saw the girl pull to the curb and exit her car.
Rushing to catch her, I...

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Do you make sure to tap all the dirt from your spikes with your bat,
 even if it takes two full-length TV time-outs for you to do so?

Do you cross yourself once, twice, thrice,
 or...

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Another day ends with insipid sun
One more uncertain season
Another month ebbs slowly invariably gone
One more uninteresting month another reason

Each bulb impressively pushing old soil up
So absented from every winter irritation 
The orchestrated plants unite drinking...

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As with all preludes
there is much mummery and mockery,
a delirious glee to be 
just below the overhanging wave,
yet dry enough to prance
and mimic the oncoming monster.

Now the windowpane is dampened
by a stupor of uprooted clouds,
if...

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Sweet memories are bitter;
For some reason it is for it is
No rehab no cure for this overlong slumber,
Nor a mistake for this miss

I thought we can go through this – together
But that’s just a hope...

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I am the chaos
I am the song
I am the reverberation
portentous, specious
and tiresomely overlong
I am the creation
I am the spring
Deadening quiet trees
Gardening souls through corrupted space
I am the hours
I am the chill
Forfeiting drawn, crushed evenings
To fold...

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I am looking for a book I left
on a train back in 88.
A book concerning explorations made
on the Metropolitan line
between Harrow-On-The-Hill and Croxley.
An odyssey
only reaching its destination today
as I now circle low
over the Jovian moon...

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This room does not remember me.
Even when I pull the drapes
the bright sky
seems surprised by my alien eyes.

Some overlong nights
can unhinge you from time and place.

I have been ill,
the nightstand rattles with medications
and the bed...

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From a young age he took to the roads,
never staying anywhere for long.
Always singing a cheerful song.
Yet most of the ladies seemed like toads.

Making choices at all crossroads
meeting here and there a tagalong.
Together they travel...

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As shadows lengthen
in the asphalt homeland
  The city winds down 
The once vibrant streets 
   are now a home for ghosts
Perhaps you feel that nightime 
  is "Where it's at"
Take heed...

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Step softly over this silken knot;
Ease into this particular caress..
I have a story
Written slowly on cloth of gold..
The wrappings shimmer sightlessly
Around the nearest ornamental Diary.

And then, we wonder as we read
Who earns such gifts as...

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Such abject misery abounds right about now
Abandon hope all that enter here.
Abort plans of happiness I do implore
My own plans are failing I fear.

Our plans in the offing going all wrong again
Happiness is turning around...

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