Long Possum Poems

I.	  The Settlement

          Hickory bark bluffs
          at the blend of two 
    ...

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Betty was bonafide crazy. She had shot her husband after a night of drunken quarreling, and was in the state mental hospital instead of being in the slammer. She'd shot the louse in the stomach...

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Fork git about spooner hiz ham

And join (singing the words 
in the next paragraph) whether alone
in a traffic jam
basting, cooking, then eating a lamb
prepared by thee missus
a superb culinary madam.

“A Ram Sam Sam” Lyrics
A ram...

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Oklahoma cowboy, tough coal miner’s son
Born in Henryetta, south of Tulsa some
Raised by daddy’s momma, taught him wrong from right
Daddy taught him ropin’, taught him how to fight
 
Herding made no money, its stock was...

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THE UK

Poling, Patching, Nether Wallop, 
Matching Tye and Droop

Plumpton, Lickfold, Puddletown, 
Westward Ho! and Throop.

Hole of Horcum, New Invention,
Boghead, Frome, Cat's Ash

North Piddle, Staines and Pen*stone,
Wash Dyke, East Breast and Flash.

Six Mile Bottom, Mudford Sock,
Wetwood,...

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We Call Him “Tommy”

We have a lovely Tom cat
He lives most out of doors
I wondered if they kick him out
Because he loudly snores

If I had a lovely “Snowshoe”
I wouldn’t let him out to roam
He would...

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Black market product truckload ... 
illegal cargo of tax-free merchandise,
and plenty boxed liquor of trouble
Leather clad tattooed dirty violet blonde
riding shotgun,
with a Rambo knife hugging her thigh
In the cab backseat
sit two mountain men beastie boys
strapped...

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It’s great living in a country town that still can offer peace,
when I come home from a stressful day to finally release
all the tension from a hectic job, that near leaves me in a heap,
and...

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I have a neighbour of mine,
A wonderful flower…..named Blossom.
She is so beautifully fine,
That I cant hold my eyes often.

Planted beside me,
Just a year ago,
And I pray to Him,
Never away does she go.

She is just the...

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where narcissistic assumptions are presumed
to be a priori and default perfect
in so far as we estimate ourselves
in the slightest vaguest
single point mirror ghost called I
this is the grand knock me down delusion
when we are a...

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In a windswept vale the tree had spread its branches
Its shale like trunk defined by weather had many wounds
One in particular had hollowed inside this stanchion
Braced against pervading skies and silk-watered lagoons
So clearly defined a...

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We were very young,                               ...

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It was raining and all were feeling blue. Writer’s block wasn’t helping…
What was I to do? Suddenly… in popped the Possum of Possibilities!
Then a most peculiar thing, my mind had lots of ideas. Boy it...

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Martial Translations

Coq au vin (Cook or wine)
by Martial, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

1.
Hosts always invite you to dinner, Phoebe,
but are you merely an éclair to the greedy?

2.
Hosts always invite you to dinner, Phoebe,
but are...

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The Possum of Possibilities was invited by Grandpa Troll to visit our brood,
The Possum heard Carol had a dry spell and a terrible writer’s block, so true.
With the troll’s adventures, penguin’s antics, and witches brew...
With...

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Written: April 28, 2025, for contest Sponsored by: Sara Jama

                   *******************

When cruelty becomes a badge of honor
empathy...

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I've got a fist full of Buddha,
And a fist full of Rand,
A pocket full of Jesus,
And the other's filled with sand,
That's in case I need to make some glass,
As it will proceed my foot in...

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I come before you, proclaiming you're Brother
Or Sister in Christ's death, that Eve was our Mother
Though you claim (in faith too) that my Truth’s your falsehood!
If all faith’s just faith, how can we in our...

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Ted Weymouth rang me up to see, if I could do a job he had…
‘His trucks broken down’ he said, so I told Ted ‘I’d be glad
to do a favour for a mate’, he said....

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Near the creek, there’s old dead tree 
We never had climbed before
Big “J” decided he’d go up
Not knowing what was in store

He climbed up to the first big fork
Sat in the crotch of the tree...

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I'd rather be inside doing the baking
Than the one being baked outside in the sun.

I never learned how to barbecue,
As my Dad ran away when I was only two.
Though my Mum taught me how to...

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Where would we be without love?
Lost sheep of Babylon, not God’s doves,
Loves philosophy is: ‘love, love, love’,
So let’s begin her story,

Her story begins in the womb,
Where love maternal is in bloom,
Then paternal love springs forth,
With...

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There was a beautiful sunbeam shining thru the trees
A beautiful sunbeam that woke up my daughter and me.
The sunbeams woke up the flowers on the ground
The only place this scent could be found.

Living in the...

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In my eighteen wheeler rolling, I am like a salmon fish in the rapids shoaling! Spawn’s flowing 
next generation’s showing!  Black smoke a rolling from smoke stack.

I am laid back, I don’t snort crack,...

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The towering pine were poised
at the edge of the forest, standing
in all their majesty,
arms locked, heads touching,
speaking in whispers.
They exchanged secrets the wind
stole and scattered.

So began the saga of the woodlands and
man's intrusion with ax...

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