Long Precipice Poems

Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.



Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It's not that every leaf must finally...

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These are peace poems, prayer poems, hymns and lullabies I have written for family, friends and the world over the years ...

Peace Prayer
by Michael R. Burch

for Jim Dunlap

Be calm.
Be still.
Be silent, content.

Be one with the...

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Three voices required,
Professor,
and two students:
Yang as Fr. Time
YinYin as Sr. Gaia

In a college classroom with Win-Win Game Theory written on whiteboard.

Professor: 
Today we are going to role play 
a Win-Win enculturation game.

We will define enculturation...

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(Somewhere in late 18th-century Europe a friend, Laetitia, by way of a letter warns her beloved girlfriend, Euphoria--a young, gay and unsuspecting mistress--against the almost inevitable seductions of the infamous and maundering philanderer, Melancholia.).



Dear Euphoria,

...

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Toddlers' Exploration: 

Cardboard drum, a thunderous beast,
Playful roars in tiny fists and feasts.
Fleeting wings glide, dreams just out of reach,
Soaring through tales of barnyard Waddles and Squeaks,
Moo! Quack! Giggles tumble and bump.
Flaps flapping, bright colors...

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Heavy storm was sweeping dark Paris streets
Lit with dim lights that dreary November night 
With ghostly shadows lurking in the corners
Cold wind dancing with dirty wet leaves fallen 
In the water pools in the middle...

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"The Precipice"



In the Autumn 
she wore a wedding veil
A cold winter would lift it
Kiss her lips passionately to 
speak words of 
LOVE
on a 
late roll call

“Well, that’s insanity for you” 
some snakes would hiss
others rapture-faced
on...

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The Lay of The Best Man - Part 4

I ask you this: Have you ever known a man to ‘buckle under stress’?
Or have you never seen a man have a ‘moment of madness’?
Have you not...

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I got friggin heebie jeebies

Cuz buzzards circle o'er me
eyeing these lovely bones prithee
id est Roy L. T. Canard, Si
hence impossible mission 
to be lovey dove vee.

Vague remembrances of dream  
which recurred with frequency
transfixed by...

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'We have a future king to make,'
Said the deep, resounding voice.
'But it is not a proper fit for everyone.
For a king must know first how to obey than to command,
And to abide rather than reign.'

'And...

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This is the 1st half of a 2-part piece a tad too long for a single posting - a tale likely very close to factual - 


An ivory-tinted fluffy billow drifted through the sunrise -...

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Inevitable death defines afterlife - deux

Flinty stones figuratively rolling inside
whooping out that primal 
binaural beat of your drum
ma mind haphazardly 
ricocheting axon to neuron
inducing inxs of chaos 
wreaking entropy beheld 
by beauty and the beast
enveloping...

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(alternately titled: Typical daily mindset today – 
July 17th, 2020)

The following words
mostly unredacted, nevertheless finessed
for curbed poetic/prosaic appeal
lock, stock and barrel
codify, and edify (hoopfully not mortify)
any reader unbeknownst and/or familiar
with unsteady state of yours truly,
(an...

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"Viral"
 


overlords for the good 
of the world 
walk and breathe
their lines 

pure as 
Snow White
war addicted
kissed while sleeping 

shadows speak 
a good talk 
viral wars rehearsed
it’s all in our system now

compromised 
inside out 
the...

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She knows what it means,
and must never not mean,
to work with newborn win/win children
perverted by wounding RightWing patriarchal punishments
overpowering LeftWing ecofeminist invitations
to liberality of loyal transparency 
and lovely vulnerability.

When she asserted her sociological conclusion:
Too many...

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Do you know the value of life?
You don't but you do
Deep inside
Who do you think you work for to learn how to walk?
Who do you think you work for when you take good grades in...

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Unlike a song I fell in love with about 'leaving',
you don't always want to leave on a jet plane, not
knowing when you'll be back again. Sometimes, like
me, it's best to take a bus or a...

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With lone intent, all freedom it will wrest
if obstinance you let these wolves deny.
As tonnage sinks beneath the torrid crest
your struggles for survival magnify.
Each flailing ship that ferries surety
is fodder for the fathoms of abyss.
Their...

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You could tell me your differences,
beat me down with distortions,
in-between fundamentally certain
of Either/Or
Yes or No
Stop or Go;
and never "and"

You also faithfully know sacred reasons
for secularized natural seasons.

You could whisper your silent discernments
in-between Both/And nuanced 
curiously...

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Restless Regrets
This story unfolds with a young girl in her early years feeling the effects of love, in a quaint little town all rashenalty went out the window when she meet this older man she...

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It falls softly as it tumbles...
Down from the sky darkly...
Deep in the heart of midnight.

Not a deity stirs at this moment out of time.
As young eyes stare into the void of an empty room. 
Something...

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I stopped there, and saw two showing high rate
Of their will, on their face, to join with me;
But were hampered by narrow street and weight.

When reached us, with their eyes awry to see
Then looked at...

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Earth         was a perfumed garden
residing in a single                   ...

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Lulled to sleep courtesy white noise of the fan

Onset of first 2023 heatwave
found yours truly lulled to sleep
courtesy rattle and hum
(U2 can dreamily tread 
where the streets have no name) 
of oscillating fan.

Nestled under blankets,
the...

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If ever I had to have a country victim of pedophily-LXXXV

(Note : Fresh disclosures from the Catholic Church on the subject
made public by protesting Mothers of infants victims of pedophily
at the hands of the Clergy...

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