Long Pigtails Poems

Where Does the Butterfly Go?
by Michael R. Burch

for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba

Where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails,
when thunder howls,
when hailstones scream,
when winter scowls,
when nights compound dark frosts with snow ...
Where...

Read More

Juvenilia: Early Poems IX

These are early poems of mine, written in my teens as a high school student and during my first two years of college.

Shock
by Michael R. Burch

It was early in the morning of...

Read More

You’re Not the Boss o’ ME!


“You’re not the boss o’ ME!” is a comeback you’ll hear among children when ordered by someone they feel has no privilege to force them to do - or to...

Read More

(Lights dim, a single spotlight illuminates Judy Garland, center stage. She wears a faded housecoat, her eyes holding a lifetime of stories. She speaks directly to the audience, her voice a smoky whisper)

Judy: 
They christened...

Read More

My given name is Hortense, and I am an English Professor,
I love my job and my life, and to do my best I endeavor.

I am popular with my students, as I also am with friends;
And...

Read More

Do the Dead see with their own eyes

    for Thadchayani, my poetry-loving doctor sister :  28/08/1929 – 26/10/2014 
            ...

Read More

“Let my heart be still a moment and let this mystery explore”  
                     ...

Read More

You, my Dad, And Me**

Giggles can be heard if I close my eyes and think,
A cute little girl, who still loves the colour pink.

Swings and roundabouts, running from one to the other,
Cheeks all a flush
Holding...

Read More

"The first time that I saw you, dear, we both were wearing swimsuits...I was pushin' twelve years old and you were pushin' ten...
And, bad as I'd been smitten - (I could not recall my name...

Read More

Drink the poison from my blood, breathe the rot from my lungs.
Take all that has been decaying inside me and nurse it to health like an injured bird.
A child who was once pure, turned sour...

Read More

Alas, a US Marine saved a baby in Afghanistan.
The USA, as a way to say thank you, puts him 
under investigation?

Yes, a true hero, made the horrid mistake?
Of being honored at a Trump rally, ...

Read More

I walk towards you,
as you stand waiting at the center of the bridge.

Beneath my feet, aged timbers span the churning river below.
With each step I see you more clearly.
My eyes search out the younger you,
that...

Read More

They talk and talk
Running in circles
Trying to make sense
Of what they have, between the two of them.

They both have a lot of baggage, I suppose
Old wounds that haven’t entirely healed
Memories that tug at them when...

Read More

Looking at an old photo of myself at age 13,
I see a girl, rail-thin, but on the verge of womanhood.
Her hair hangs in long pigtails and she wears a modest top with shorts
as she sits...

Read More

(This is about the same lovely young lady and best friend that I wrote about in "A Pink Rose." I always think about her when I think about roses. Especially pink and lavender ones.)

The very...

Read More

To Shakespeare I give all due respect,
But the world must be a huge theater I suspect.
Woman’s the major player if not the star,
For she influences all with love from afar.
The main acts of her drama...

Read More

"recently scenes of early life have stolen into my mind, like breezes blown ..."
                     ...

Read More

They called it school
I called it hell 
From the huge imposing prison like doors
To the doom like toll of the bell
Everyday the same
Running for the school bus
Full of uncivilized Wild kids
Being pushed and shoved
Countless kids...

Read More

Frankly Speaking

There is a couple on the beach, they have a small room, been on the beach for years, suffered through the worst of it. They have been through every phase. The Hippie, the war...

Read More

there is a gravity to you
whenever crossing the room
it is an existence that bends light
into an aura capturing my every breath 
a plasma that penetrates every atom within
with memories of long ago
when you first walked...

Read More

He Always Loved Her

The loving man in the neighborhood remembers the day she was born
into the world.  He heard just how happy her parents were that day, 
that week, that year!  He didn’t...

Read More

Everywhere she went her hair sparkled. It glistened in the morning sun, the noonday sun, and at dusk too. The waves in her auburn hair were her glory. The freckles on her cheeks even stood...

Read More

Life is a playground, the fun never ends.
Not a care in the world, just run around with your friends.
Doodling on the walls
Playing house with your dolls.
Chasing boys around with cooties
But only those you think are...

Read More

On a Sunday in the evening
The old barn becomes a hall
Social place where every weekend
The town folk go for a ball.
 
The inside is decorated  
Lights are lit, the banners sway
By the walls barrels...

Read More

I 

I knew a time when my sister, tall and fair 
with her sage sense of humor, dull and non-existent 
Seemed positively, 
metallic, blessed with flowing shackles, a gift, extended only to me. 
Limiting my...

Read More