Long Pillowcase Poems

Juvenilia: Early Poems V

Poetry
by Michael R. Burch

Poetry, I found you
where at last they chained and bound you;
with devices all around you
to torture and confound you,
I found you—shivering, bare.

They had shorn your raven hair
and taken both...

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Poems about Poems III

Radiance
by Michael R. Burch

for Dylan Thomas

The poet delves earth’s detritus?hard toil?
for raw-edged nouns, barbed verbs, vowels’ lush bouquet;
each syllable his pen excretes?dense soil,
dark images impacted, rooted clay.

The poet sees the sea but...

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Realizing the fact that everything that is in my life now won't be forever can utterly disturb me in ways that can spin me around in so many directions when in reality I am laying...

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Soldiers sacrifice their arms and legs 
While your greatest weapon is forcing my hand
Oh but I'm told it's all in the name of romance
But when I fall asleep at night and the pillowcase 
goes damp...

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The attic trunk, dirty, and oh so old
Had survived the many years untold
Sitting there midst the quiet dust
The hasp and hinges brown with rust

In the young girls’ mind she was compelled
To see what it was...

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These are lullabies I have written as poems. 

Midnight Lullaby
by Michael R. Burch

I.
A measureless rhythm rules the night—
few have heard it,
but I have shared it,
and its secret is mine.

To put it into words
is as to...

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Sappho's Lullaby
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

Hushed yet melodic, the hills and the valleys
sleep unaware of the nightingale's call
while the dew-laden lilies lie
listening, 
glistening...
this is their night, the first night of fall.			

Son, tonight, a woman awaits...

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I’m with you,
I’m without when not.

That’s how much you’ve become.
Plastered fabric enmeshed into me.
Like drywall, yet to crack, but firm and white.

Bare bones make us who we are.
I can feel yours now, I think.

The way...

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These Hallowed Halls
by Michael R. Burch

I

A final stereo fades into silence
and now there is seldom a murmur
to trouble the slumber
of these ancient halls.

I stand by a window where others have watched
the passage of time, alone,
not...

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Goodnight my dear boy and what's that you say?
You want me to chase the bad monsters away?
Well, I'll tell you a tale that may just be true
And if it's made up, it is done just...

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Music and romance are camarilla comrades,
just like poems are my shield and arrows.
But not all lullabies of lovers,
harmonise like a street choir of angels.
If love resembles the weather,
then poetry is like a snowflake.
Its fragile abstract...

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DAUGHTERS

Opposites presented by Goddess
In talons of Eagle
         On wings of Dove
Equally loved

A torrent from a fierce black cloud
  yang frothing waves in a storm
  ...

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I will not be late to work today

I will get there on time
I will brush my teeth
Without singing songs
Without thinking about birthdays
About gymnasiums
About TAKS 
About sound
About war
Republicans
Democrats
Independents

I will get there on time
I will eat my...

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evening mist curls
slowly up the rugged path
pondering life journey

The old man sat quietly. He was pensively weighing his actions and the balance of right and wrong in his life.  Finally realizing there were better...

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The old man sat quietly. He was pensively weighing his actions and the balance of right and wrong in his life.  Finally realizing there were better things to do he simply told God he...

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***A Parenting Tale***

He must’ve been
Just barely fourteen, but still off as
A ninja filling a pillowcase
   with chocolate on Halloween.
Although through all other days 
   his ken was an avocado green,
That is...

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Terrorism is a villainous violence, 
Used by those who disagree,
Bloodshed breaks the somber silence,
Between those who feel unfree. 

However, when one disagrees
With how the system works,
They are targeted by an intelligent team
Of thieves who wear...

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A back flipping coconut is very very amusing at a ball but ball pits are moving around so one must surely wear wellingtons or a pair of anglers' waders when jumping across such multicoloured curves....

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When the moon crochets a pattern so subtle that I think I can hear it;
This is fluid feeling; this is a force I cannot replicate.
A calm silence in the silence- I can feel it. 

You’re...

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Tears on my pillowcase
Scars on my body, nightmares replay in my mind
I need some help, because I'm far from fine
Can you hold me?, because I don't know how much more I can take

I'm bleeding from...

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I reel my hands back and lay them to rest on my lap.
A tingling sensation seeps into my awareness,
drips from my shoulders,
and flows downwards onto my bent arms,
leaving a trail of bumps in its wake....

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A pillowcase backpack, camping under the kitchen table. 
Lost in imagination, deaf to strife. 
In every way full of wonder of life. 

Holed up in a couch cushion bunker. 
Barefoot and bare chested. 
Taking aim...

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Near the last few days of moving, my parents came to me. I knew that at this time 
with their pleading looks, they were asking for the decision that would change 
everything. It took all...

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Remember when you were young?
The days when we played tag and you won
And challenged each other to who could hold pop rocks the longest on their tongue

The days I wish I could go back to,...

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my name means flames that crawl down your face and ruin your night
it's when you laugh so hard you break your spine
but then realize you never had one in the first place
it's when you beg...

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