Long Predatory Poems

"The Messenger"

Love is rich with 
venom and honey. 

there was a female ...

snake, 
it watched 
with green-eyed 
avarice, covetting
a dove’s nest

the dove, 
was white as snow, 
not young, getting on,
tiny flecks of grey

the dove 
alone,...

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SELF REFLECTIONS

These are poems about mirrors, images, self-image, reflections, impressions and self-reflection. 

Self Reflection
by Michael R. Burch 

for anyone struggling with self-image

She has a comely form
and a smile that brightens her dorm ...
but she's grossly...

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Date December 31. 2040

Damian Stood on the ground floor
Of the new Mansion while 
GrandDad Hakim rested In the
Living room watching TV.  The
First level was half complete. 
Damian thought the pace needed
Quickening. He would have...

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10 o'clock am the morning 
Quest: A country side bike ride.
Molly woke Dolly and Damian.
Woke Everyone on that July 
Morning of 2038. They had a Bicycle 
Expedition to tend to plus a newly
Minted swimming pool...

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Unquotable quotes: Tale-Carriers, Gossip-Mongers, Courrier-Pigeon Caretakers, Smoke-Signal Puffers and Tom-Tom Thumpers – XXVI

Could there be such things as political shenanigans or inter-continental warfares, even catastrophes, natural disasters, tsunamis, irruptions, conflagrations, inundations, landslides, typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes,...

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Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds (I)



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as hummingbird wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching...

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Tasting Africa (One L****ick at a Time) Part 1
(Though the title's a joke, my limericks are not!)

1. Life's Always an Adventure (Morogoro)
Can one's life be that safe when all live in a zoo -
Friend on...

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Synopsis
The lovely Lady Isabeau and her lover, medieval French Knight Etienne escape to flee the lustful advances of wicked Bishop of Aquila causing them to run afoul of him. The evil-bishop places them under a...

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This is my last confession; there will be no more.

I am impercipient and slow from last night's sleeping pill,
wincing away from the harshness of day.
Kitchen cold, the room tear-splintered,
sunlight striking a watery rainbow in my...

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I wandered through the semi busy streets filled with pedestrians as they hurried out of the rain. I continued on with no destination in mind ,no umbrella to shield myself from the frigid elements. ...

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My Halloween party was in full swing. I had gone all out this year and rented an old crumbling, reputed-to-be haunted mansion for the evening's Dionysian festivities, and all the invited guests were present and...

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anticipatory anxiety fosters catastrophization...,

especially bombardment of online scare tactics
courtesy fiendish insidious loathsome sinister oafs
rubbing their hands at aggrieved party;
punch drunk cyber thieves ecstatic
acquiring by hook and/or crook
sought after precious, priceless, and proverbial data
after loosed ransomware...

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In case you don’t remember them they came from outer space
They were to be the first beginnings of the human race
But when they crashed they came down in a stark and frigid place
Antarctic ice interred...

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The drunk gods of vengeance mischievously donate their magic
filthy rags of wickedness, dropping down to curse humanity
darkness rules, day is banned for light to stay poisoned.
The ground peels from the earth to dissipate into the...

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“The Penelope Squad”



A line of bluebirds 
tittering on a line
swaying on the winds
like comedian pageboys 
having a good time
poop in the peg bucket
words wooden and sharp
fly off with frosty notes
dirt and sherry stains
imprinted on 
Penelope’s...

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Wave a sea softened
                  and a pain and a tenderness
        ...

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As a child, I was taught that God created everything
But when I went to school,
the theory of evolution was the accepted doctrine

That kinda teaching didn't sit well with my parents,
they gathered the kids around, read...

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"I truly feel that it is only when humanity can genuinely show love and
         respect, by nurturing and protecting the environment and all forms of 
 ...

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That kiss 
tasted like warm sunlight
toasting the tongue 
with honeyed sun 
and promises 

on a blue sky day

That kiss 
reached far into one
seeking to open words
locked inside let out
like crysallis butterflies

wet and warm, shaking, fluttering...

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Ch8, cont.

Northward parallel the valley.
And their ridge-top elevation 
Gave advantage of perspective 
They could see the forest's ending
 
In the distance. That same evening 
Would reveal a stronger reason 
For Ipiki's intervention
Something sensed in his...

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Emotional guillotine clefts
     irredeemable psychological umbilical accord
witnessing heart breaking,
     woe-begotten inhumane rip cord
gut wrenching shuffle board
     (indiscriminately sporting)
     most...

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Awaiting the descent of light,
Darkness befalls
Intimate shadows emerge,
Within a silvery...eerie mist.

His dark...predatory presence,
Atop her pallid...shiny skin
Entwined...silhouettes
Unrestrained...immortal love
His muscles burst with definition.
As he positions his masculine intuition,
He sinks his pearl teeth into the bite.

Seduced by his...

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There once was a day I would watch every airplane.
Praying you was on it to come take me away.
As a child I wanted you around until the day, you actually came.
The day you came is...

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CHapter 14 King Ptoleny the 2nd (cont.)

Thus they charted weather systems 
Grey depressions bringing rainclouds,
Towering dark cumulonimbus,
Or the violent storms and cyclones
 
And in turn this processed data,
One or two days’ weather forecast,
Spirited across the...

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Every now and then,
I go on what I call a, "wilderness survival excursion."
Basically I venture deep into some remote wilderness region,
with little more than the clothes that I'm wearing,
and survive on whatever Nature may be...

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