Long Picket Poems

If God
is good
half the Bible
is libel.
-Michael R. Burch

*

Willy Nilly
Michael R. Burch

Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
You made the stallion,
you made the filly
and now they sleep
in the dark earth, stilly.
Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?

Isn’t it silly, Willy...

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Willy Nilly
by Michael R. Burch

for the Demiurge aka Yahweh and Jehovah 

Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
You made the stallion,
you made the filly,
and now they sleep
in the dark earth, stilly.
Isn’t it silly, Willy Nilly?
 
Isn’t it...

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Beckoning
by Michael R. Burch 
 
Yesterday the wind whispered my name
while the blazing locks
of her rampant mane
lay heavy on mine.
And yesterday
I saw the way
the wind caressed tall pines
in forests laced by glinting streams
and thick with...

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RED

One hundred years ago in Pollockshaws
A man was laid to rest,
From humble beginnings to a martyr
They buried Scotland’s best.

A man who stood for the people
A man unshaken and proud,
Till the imperialist and capitalist murderers
 Connived...

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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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In the May-time of my life
time bloomed each day a prickly boll –
but I, like the softest cotton within such a sharp seed  
swaddled in the purity of security 
for what seemed like eternity...

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I was once something of a pessimist, and that fact did not concern me,
As violet birds are content, to spend their nights in different trees.

Still I had a happy and quiet existence, or at least...

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Race-Ism

What makes one man or woman better than another?
Should we think differently of those who adapted
to another environment and adapted another color?

If our differences are only skin deep as a tone
why do we unto our...

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What if you were born in the 1800's?
                           ...

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Date  June 2024
A large group  picketed outside 
Of the toilet paper factory. 
People held picket
Signs marching in a circular line.
The Group chanted: 
Revolters deserve better bottom
Paper on this caper!  The group
Became bigger...

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MY HOME TOWN
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS	
Time moves on never stands still
It changes the outcome no matter the will
Of the dreamers who hold on to and then
Each moment happens once then never again
I had a feeling this...

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Meet at the Cemetery
This is where I live
Meet me at the cemetery to make your final bid
One suitcase and one long gown
This is where I am bound
Bones and bones meet  with bones
Dead bones, dried...

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this barren page, screaming, crying
	yelling through the winds,
		inviting me to begin again,
always, to just begin
	again and again, tempting my pen
tempting me to just begin, begin
	A G A I N

this infertile soil, empty page – white...

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Summer is lingering on and autumn is secretly chiming in
wild marigolds are blooming everywhere
and the earth is soaking up  my  sordid tears
The full moon is  watching over me and predicting my destiny
Bright...

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open …
I keep my eyes open
to watch you as you kiss me
to think on all that you are thinking
all the carnal thoughts that
might be stirring behind those lids
our lashes so close …
like little feathers that...

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*This was written as a novelty Christmas song, so feel free to sing along.

Santa Claus is trying to break our Union
    but we won't go down without a fight.
So we've called a...

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These are poems about war and defenses.



Defenses
by Michael R. Burch

Beyond the silhouettes of trees
stark, naked and defenseless
there stand long rows of sentinels:
these pert white picket fences.

Now whom they guard and how they guard,
the good Lord...

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(dirty dental deeds done dirt cheap,
yet...aye value, treasure, revere...those
loosely fading cutting edge com man 
dubble size memories.)

(Witch role an 
   unavoidable mandatory phase),
that nowadays breaks the piggybank 
   like a dropped...

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Dancing at the disco I espy the woman of my dreams
Wearing a lavender basque top and painted on jeans
Her smile is so dazzling there is nothing to compare
I can’t help feeling I know her from...

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those two months that i pretended you were dead
i was too

now we sit 
like our bodies do not need to play each others

you are just the kind of boy that breathes beautiful
like it's easy
you shove...

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tell them the one thing you might not say, the words you could hush, say it loud, quiet too, 
rhyme if you have to, skip a line, maybe two, a pattern of words, to see...

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Memories of My Parents

Memories of my father
Bring forth the autumn walks.
Shades of nature on the crunchy leaves
At the man-made lake down the hill
From the little white house
With the green picket fence,
Which our large family lived...

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Oh my darling, a white picket fence,
Oh my darling, a polite cricket wench,
In my face, you can't see, my soul.

Oh, my darling, oh, my darling, my pride has gone.
It's been replaced, it's been replaced by...

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when i was merely fourteen- 
i remember walking around wondrously throughout my town, 
i wondered how people could live like this.
 i look to my left and saw a fresh painted white house with a...

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I was a perky lost and found coordinator, reuniting people with possessions,
As pink-orange, diamond sunset rejoins us, reminiscing sunrise impressions.

I liked blithe smiles of pleasure and relief, at reclaiming what was once lost,
Like pearl, exciting...

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