Long Plaits Poems

Lady’s Favor
by Michael R. Burch

May
spring
fling
her riotous petals
devil-
may-care
into the air,
ignoring the lethal
nettles
and may
May
cry gleeful-
ly Hooray!
as the abundance
settles,
till a sudden June
swoon
leave us out of tune,
torn,
when the last rose is left
inconsolably bereft,
rudely shorn
of every device but her thorn.


The...

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LOVE POEMS III by Michael R. Burch

These are love poems by Michael R. Burch about passion, desire, lust, sex, dating, relationships, devotion and marriage. 


Violets
by Michael R. Burch

Once, only once,
when the wind flicked your skirt
to...

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Song from Aella: Under the Willow Tree, or, Minstrel's Song
by Thomas Chatterton, age 17 or younger
modernization/translation by Michael R. Burch

MYNSTRELLES SONGE ("MINSTREL'S SONG")

O! sing unto my roundelay,
O! drop the briny tear with me,
Dance no more...

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My hair has always 
had a mind of its own
Stays doing whatever
it wants whenever 
it pleases
Just never bothers to do 
any of it, at my convenience
Will take its sweet time 
to grow 
When I'm most...

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Finding the plot

Of lost innocence
engrained in untold memories

The silenced absence 
in past present unspoken
stories well hidden
and therefore evoking
my past and my future
not mine and mine

Quite a mind-field
mines bombs blazing
artillery burning houses

My antecedent shelter of
generational tapestry
knotted...

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Playmates
by Michael R. Burch
 
WHEN you were my playmate and I was yours,
we spent endless hours with simple toys,
and the sorrows and cares of our indentured days
were uncomprehended . . . far, far away ....

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I’m just having a good laugh while I still can dude before life takes its heavy grip

Until the community of clowns in disguise tie my tongue to their altar of reason

You think of a genius...

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My strange tears.
The genie's eyes, oh genie's eyes.
Gather the sun's spears.
Be careful not to step on the thistles of fear.
Plaits are used to create the form.
To achieve a slimmer epitome.
You and I are friends.
Envy is...

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I am the prize catch
I live in an artificial lake
	fed by a nappe phréatique
I was put there to keep 
	lesser fish: carp
      from taking up too much space 
I live...

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Aeolus God and Ruler of the Wind
Summoned Aura and surveying her grinned

Then proceeded to whisper in her ear
Brought shocked expression, a falling tear

"Please do not pursue the Aurai nymphs"
Whose replicas were on all column plinths

Aeolus...

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If she had to cross the rubicon for lack of sorting colours

	A Rubik’s cube remained an unsolved puzzle

If numbers granted her the wish to live another happy day

	Sudoku would refuse transformation from a maze

If chess...

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We were small, innocence written all over..
Pulling plaits, dreaming of a new rover.
Crossed paths..when I picked my nose,
While you processed your identity of rose.
She lodged once with me, once with you,
Paving two lines to a...

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It were you 





It's been ages as I wait
moments frozen in my silvery plaits,
Years be counted in my wrinkles 
passion shines as hope twinkles,

Autumns returned in the orange hue,
as crispy leaves cherished their due,
Vibrant flowers...

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My aunt was a weirdo: she talked to trees, walked around the house naked and used to read me “The Metamorphoses” by Ovid and “The Song of Hiawatha” by Longfellow as a bedtime story. “Oom-ta-ta,...

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Thirteenth Birthday

I picturize my thirteenth birthday through memory glass
My grandpa matured my dream with a shiny black bicycle
Thrilled for I would now be able to ride like other friends

Grandpa held the cycle as I capered...

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Windswept

Over sheet music, harmonious movement of sand.
Droplets of rain dance - time swooning on sea and on land.

Cupid’s arrows climb, descend strings of the violin.
Heartthrobs, side by side, in best dress, on seasonal spin.

Fingers up...

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Hey!
My
Daily
Love-trances!
You are vain, absurd,
Pointless like gigantic bubbles!
Unworthy to reach my love’s castled, restricted mind.
Counting his forehead’s plaits, I pass my virgin life recklessly, day-dreaming worthlessly;
Glaring at his eyes, I find the dreams reigning there with...

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Camera

Once I found a camera, swept up
on a beach. I picked seaweed off 
it like strands of hair, unwashed.
A crab’s claw, no body of note,
clasped the shutter as if protector,
a titan from the deep: the...

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#1
That's a tall girl,
lean and tan,
pretty as a picture. 

#2
This kid's short,
pale but chubby,
and yes, pretty in her hazel eyes.

#3
This girl, with curly hair,
fair, pretty, lean. 
Not very tall, not very small. 

#4
This shy girl,
with...

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The Sun, burns them
As though they have crossed its path.
Rather, it has with impunity.
Sweat rolls down their bodies to console,
But fury they warp it out
Just to survive.
That young lad is wet and frustrated.
Indeed some sweat...

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Be the bee within the bees bonnet pouring
Not as old man in his slumber snoring
For soon the bees of honey do partake
And late the old man stands his last awake

Come comb your honey hair as...

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pews of velcro Sunday flats
little girls in plaits and jean dresses
arms folded
heads bowed
fluttering eyes from under lashes
peeking towards blackgrayblue Brothers
in their suits upon the stand

Father, Son, and Spirit
prose in archaic english dictating 
lives
	loves
		loss 
Priesthood power

ladies...

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The bridge between our hearts 
as fine as spiderweb threads
Along it soldiers march 
workers trample, children skip
with balls of light
cows graze, horses gallop

 
Between our hearts the bridge
is held by the Tree of Life
sung over...

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Inside an archaic framework
she fetches a pail from the fields,
the bucket on her hip is full of
broken eagles.
Wind turbines churn in the distance.

He takes the mangled birds
plucks them,
puts their heads on poles
loads them onto a...

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All trees travel skyward
All leaves seek to hug sun
All flowers wish to emit scent
I too crave for the crescent

Whether sky or sun or crescent
Of course all don’t deserve
There is the order of high and low
Dews...

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