Long Patches Poems

Rejection Slips 2

The Shape of Mourning
by Michael R. Burch
 
The shape of mourning
is an oiled creel
shining with unuse,
 
the bolt of cold steel
on a locker
shielding memory,

the monthly penance
of flowers,
the annual wake,
 
the face in 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 want to tell you the story of my life.  I was born in a barn at dawn.  There
were eight of us but I was the only one with spots.  I was...

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Wounded Sacred Dementia

My last foster care-provider
and -receiver story
is also a sad story
of my last special needs adoption
of bipolar born,
and oppositionally reared,
alcoholism.

My BiPolar Wounded Child
turned an auspicious five
on the day I first saw her,
and promptly rejected...

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The greatest performance of my life.  
Howard’s proud piece de resistance award  on Poetry Nook for my magnum opus “Rush Amid The Rapids” in their daily member section.
After endless hours of toil, tribulation,...

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In a matter of months, we would experience the greatest economic                        ...

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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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What words do we choose for maximizing our ultimate accomplishments,
achieving our healthiest goals,
measuring our 100% successful therapeutic outcome projections?

Why do these words, 
and our feelings about these choices 
wave in and out of optimal happiness...

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The ride to the country is uneventful
Except that I feel a little like
A man riding inside a cannon ball.
Yuliya's father Igor drives
I'm also up front (the honored guest)       ...

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I have always wanted something wonderful out of life
But my mother said there is always a price
It has nothing to do with land, money or property 
Someone has always been there for me and I...

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Betsy is “just a cow” most would say. She’s dark rust, almost auburn in color, with large white patches all over her body and especially on her rather long, nosey face. She has deep, soft...

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THE CHIMNEY
The once fine air, refreshens with dust
Between the village horizon and crest
Since the sailing of a death chemical chimney.

Young green plants seedlings growing on slope
Are left to sip these  carcinogenic dusts, sapling
And entwined...

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Your Own Favorite Poem Contest
Sponsor: Carol Eastman

"GOOD BYE, MY LOVE" Part I
Written: December 14, 2015

After the snowfall but before the lily blossoms,
you were this woman who left by choice,
all natural decisions made from a place...

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My parents had both passed and I felt orphaned, alone --
Although I was married and lived hours away with a family of my own.
And today was a day I had dreaded for months
Silently traveling the...

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THE GREATEST GENERATION
by

JOHN M. ARRIBAS



Many Have Called Them the Greatest Generation
They Had Struggled and Survived, an Ugly Depression
It Was an Era of Hard Times and Simple Diversions
Like Bank Night, Singalongs  and Picnic Excursions
Band Concerts...

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Another day in dreamland

Wake up.  Watch the sun ease in the light
like the day before, goin back, and on some more.
Cuddle with the reasons why while I collect
my unconscious back from the sky.
Okay, get...

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I woke  up this morning  at a quarter to three
and  went outside to pray a prayer for thee
My heart was light and my Spirit felt free 
as I walked optimistically down nostalgic...

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...and the Demon spoke,
its voice deep and mellow like smooth satiny chocolate,
"There is more, much more than good and evil,"
the words thunderously whispered.
The verdant emerald green of the forest quivering at the sound,
drawing in upon...

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I retired a couple years ago
and decided to take a gardening class
because otherwise I probably would starve
even with food stamps,
given my retirement plan
was mainly to live off my still-freeloading adult perpetual-children.

This gardening class cost more...

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Albedo effect in full force after appreciable snowfall

After descent of eventide
luminescence of freshly fallen snow
still illuminates the terrestrial firma bright
even upon the onset of dusk,
when dark shadows
betoken the edge of night
analogously herald outer limits
invoking intimations...

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Him, he’s so dangerous but so safe.How can someone like him be so broken??His smile oh my gosh it’s so priceless I swear he doesn’t know his true worth.To me no mental diagnosis would be...

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Back to you Billy, for ways I whiled away herding ennui

Ah...a flood of memories wash over
this anointed Goatama Boo Da,
whose respected G.O.A.T status
among generic green acres, 
which swathed across Highland Manor 
analogous to petty coat...

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We are fire.
We fire.
We consume and produce warm memories,
and colder dissonance.
Where were we before first flicker of flame?
What were we before our time?

After our last flame expires
is our dialectal distinction
now extinction?
Or this same where of...

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Does my head in the guillotine promptly paint me guilty?
My last meal, a full plate of your golden excuses 
But any attention means so much to me 
We’re going in circles, 
But feel free to...

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She, the queen of glamour, they say,
Loves making things flow her way.
Fortunate she was, having earned 
A prince as he, so delectable,
Amidst the beauty of hills,
He made her, the dream castle.
As lovingly, She delivered to...

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