Long Pub Poems

Like Hannibal we crossed the pass and crossed 
   the Alps (okay, the Brynderwyn Hills) 
and a bridge too far on north-west passage.
   From out of the Valley of Mizpah 
to...

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After numerous threats on our lives after 
a domestic violence with my abuser after 
I returned from Tampa murder 
trial I was finally healing several therapist home 
visits my children and I were ready for...

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Salve
by Michael R. Burch

for the victims and survivors of 9-11

The world is unsalvageable ...
but as we lie here
in bed
stricken to the heart by love
despite war’s
flickering images,

sometimes we still touch,

laughing, amazed,
that our flesh
does not despair
of love
as...

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Lake county music company filled with 
slots carney folk real carny folk the little 
pete's illegal gambling road show throughout 
the  Midwest gaming like your idol Frank Peter 
Balistreiri the mad bomber stops Metropolis...

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 A French ‘Indianist’ Doctor: A Tribute to a Die-hard Humanist
                         ...

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                                  ...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s Courbet: Elegy 8 by T. Wignesan

Blanches oeuvres ouvertes
résident dans les jours
la surface du banc de travail est noire
les géraniums-lierres
les fougères et les adragans
accumulent leurs oeuvres et jours:
La toile noire de Courbet
un...

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I remember feeling so empty the abuse had escalated after four hurricanes witnessing a murder horrific traumatic brain injury I was now uprooted leaving my beautiful home in Fort Myers Florida at the behest of...

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Special Agent Alan King arrived in his Buick dragging my husband to Foss park for his failed lie detector test where I wore wires pregnant for the FBI my husband was scared to death after...

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     by how many badbyes can you measure the length of your day

                 first comes...

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I met a proper woman in a proper pub on a Monday in Peoria. It was noon, time for lunch, and we were sitting stool to stool over very large burgers at a long mahogany...

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THE LAST TIME I SAW A BLACK AUDI IT CUT US OFF PARKED THE SMELL OF DEATH WAS BREWING FUNNY HOW MANY TIMES I SCREAMED HELP SOMEONE IS GOING TO HURT MY CHILDREN AND I...

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from island corner, big Antrim lad
  to Belfast city, a tiny pad
  shattered windows, tilted clocks
  Goliath had lost his socks
  gargantuan giant going mad

  Armagh apple girl, any topic
...

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He always brought the subject up at the most inappropriate time, usually when someone was trying to kill us.

Are you a believer now?

If I get out of this, I’ll think about it. We got out...

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Headlights messaged through midnight windows 
Curtainless glass unable to subdue the urgency 
Car obtained in street nearby was theirs temporarily
Three hour drive to ship leaving island next morning

Two sixteen year old girls barely registered surprise...

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He always brought the subject up at the most inappropriate of times, usually when some c**t was trying to kill us.
Are you a believer now?
If I get out of this, I’ll think about it. We...

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HEROES

Near somber guards, units of children heap 
dead leaves, naive to any else fallen.
Friend, you chuckle, but your posture speaks
of duty on this day of contradictions.

Firefighters bow heads in silent paean, 
while polished trucks stand...

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Blossom
                                  ...

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Humbleness
(Free Verse)

Humble is a man who prefers 
To take fresh air in his garden
Than waste his time in a pub,
To be dressed in simple clothing
Than in expensive high class dresses
That bursts a whole in his...

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Blossom

Just grab a seat on that stump lad, and I'll take centre stage, 
With a yarn about a small brown donk, and a lad about your age.
And thanks much for the offer, but I'll give...

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No One
by Michael R. Burch

No One hears the bells tonight;
they tell him something isn’t right.
But No One is not one to rush;
he lies in grasses greenly lush
as far away a startled thrush
flees from horned owls...

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I blame me brother for the likes of this predicament,
when we pub crawled up to Bunyip, and where our night was spent.
Thank God I wasn’t in the driver’s seat, ‘cause we wouldn’t be alive, 
but...

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I’ve always been a prankster and a lover of a joke.
I love to see the puzzled look on an unsuspecting bloke,
when he looks around and lifts his hat - totally confused.
Some take a joke for...

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My watch is broken, I can not wait for you to get here
The sun is heating,(I cannot believe) today, we're finally meeting.
I'm not quite sure how I'm gonna act or what I'm gonna say
But of...

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The Letter         

A young man strolled along the waterfront,
His mind and heart at ease.
Said an old man, sitting on an upturned punt,
Gazing out towards the sea. 

“Come...

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