Long Peeled Poems

Doggerel II: Doggerel about Doggerel, or, More Nonsense Verse

The Board
by Michael R. Burch

Accessible rhyme is never good.
The penalty is understood:
soft titters from dark board rooms where
the businessmen paste on their hair
and, Walter Mitties, woo the...

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 A French ‘Indianist’ Doctor: A Tribute to a Die-hard Humanist
                         ...

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When I was young, and adventure routine,
With excitement and newness still unforeseen
I was eager to spread my wings to the world
And seek more adventures as those wings unfurled

Within my long travels I happened to meet
Two...

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Hopefully these two young boys stayed out of trouble after getting a wonderful break like this.

                   ...

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Two, perhaps three miles out to sea, beyond the reef to Zapatillas,
Bocas’ dual sand-edged footprint jewels with jungle centre trees, 
Francesco’s outboard boat heads out to Caribbean’s deeper blue.

Where sun burns softer gringo skin, but...

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The Dance of Salome
Herod bellowed out the night's festive orders..
"Bring the torches, bring the tables..
more wine, that we may rejoice,  
for tonight we revel in kindred friendship."
Herod strolled onto the terrace, nearly stumbled in...

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This happened last Fall, during Thanksgiving break.

Lisa and I were at the MET (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), with her family, at an exhibit of Art Deco sculpture. Lisa and I came out of a...

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This whip is a relic of war
an instrument of severe education, 
come now Avia, look how lovely and vulgar,
it is essential for you to appreciate it's intention,
feel it's supple weight, the simple fright,
I use jasmine...

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Dreams……
In your Dreams, what is it that you see when you close your eyes at night?
In your Dreams, are you alone? Is there a special feeling of something or someone that you can feel but...

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Within the frame a sepia scene
a dusty porch   a rickety chair   
the fabric of your dusky face creased
with ceaseless sunbaked woes
your old pair of getaway feet gives 
a different walk of...

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"The Calming of Her Storm"



My mother gave me solace
I fell into her deep hollows
to kiss the wisdom of her 
breath chanting quietly 
I still hear her 
nightingale birdsong caressing 
the soft fluttering 
of her tireless...

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"The White Lady of Skipsea"


Last night I dreamt 
I dreamed of you
a kind of dream 
within a dream

Diaphanous, 
my soul escaped, 
this firmament,
my immaculate heart
held hands, my fingers 
did entwine with 
handsome Morpheus

Crystal radiate
twin gossamer...

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Gaylord Laryngitis was a monstrous human being.    
They say he weighed…at ten years old…at least 400 pounds,
But standin’ 6 foot 7…and because he exercised…
he actually didn’t look real “fat”…despite the way it...

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THE RISING HILLS, THE SLOPES, TO QUENCH MY THIRST.
In the last century, the hopes were little,
Grasses they collected, yellow bananas, they peeled,
To move up the slopes, preparation was fore filled,
Oh the grower of banana trees,
To...

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I'm here rapping. 
All my fans their clapping. 
All the haters laughing. 
I don't listen to haters. 
Even if their bunch of dictators. 
People don't believe in me. 
Why should I be rapping for free.
I'm...

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Welcome to a typical 'Luau' spread. The first thing that is best to learn is the Hawaiian word, 'ono', which means, delicious. It's a word bandied about before and after food goes in your mouth....

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Kitchen counters alive; the vivid colors of red, green, purple and yellow glass jars. Your garden flourished.
.
Pickled beets mingle boiled eggs; a pretty periwinkle purple.
.
Yellow and purple tinted fingers; dandelions and elderberries distilling; musty aroma...

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for Ronald Hindmarsh-Midwood 
                               ...

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Devotion Poem, Like Snow Leopards

(Written for Jim Eslinger)

Out on one of the Great Plains of Yahweh, It seems
You may have gone on a hunt, or a long searching.
But no matter the reason, in the time...

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Kirby Kirby’s sister’s brother’s cat bit Bill Belushi’s 45 lb. Yorkie on the *** last Tuesday night,
And I’m a real big fan of dogs so…when it comes to felines…bitin’ canines ANYWHERE, well...I don’t think it’s...

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This piece was inspired by a journal left behind by an adventurous young man that elected to take his wife and two young children, by ox-drawn wagon, to California, in the early 1850s, expecting to...

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Let me be Frank.

I pulled up to the Stork Club in a bright Red Coupe Deville. I must admit I felt a bit of pride as I tossed the bell hop the keys. I said...

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Your love is like a river peaceful and deep, 
like a secret I just can’t keep, like the shearing of a sheep,
like taking a leap, like my hand falling asleep, your love is like 
the...

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well now, let’s see, 
if you live in “the land of the
free,” 
you get to see people get blown
away at a higher frequency these days,
because of
“individuals”
who have snapped,
right?
couldn’t be the wonderful capitalist 
gangbang, that squeezes...

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Judy Leigh was addicted with a food fixation.
Gorging on fruit, veggies, and any crustacean.
She wanted to stop and yelled, "Damnation!
My overeating is causing me such frustration!"

While grudgingly doing her morning chores,
Judy acquired the bad habit...

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