Long Reckoning Poems

Observance
by Michael R. Burch

Here the hills are old and rolling
carefully in their old age;
on the horizon youthful mountains
bathe themselves in windblown fountains...

By dying leaves and falling raindrops,
I have traced time's starts and stops,
and I have...

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Part 1: FORE SIBERIAN FATE

silk wings wet -
angel on the lake.
starlight glitter
separates from

the golden wheat.
her docile hair,
prophecy of ice.

winter pink,
pinched cheeks.
ice skate scrapes -
flecks of flakes.

the snow queen
before her relentless
reign, a pretty thing.

her smile warms
the...

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She stood with her back turned to me
Leaning slightly towards where the light tapered off into darkness
Her faced buried deep inside her cupped hands 
Her own shadow towered over her seemingly at odds with her...

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Legacy accompanied with inadequacy DESPAIR RING
uninvited GUESTS linkedin as the themes of mein kampf.

Despite countless factorial permutations
& combinations, this cyber surfer
avails left and right alm
seeking succor Out Of Human Bondage
invisibles shackles bind head,
shoulders, knees and...

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   Symbols cry in dry ice theater -
the expanse of aesthetic visa-
drawn-
from the romance of the silvery eye -
as it golden advances the lid of covenance 
in dynamic enzyme.
Open faced type interpreted-
interpreter-embossed embol-
in...

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Rosalia - The Evil Black Witch of the Harz, Part Five

The Monseigneur knew that they must be successful in this venture as the “Lord’s Madmen” or face the very real possibility of eternal damnation, if...

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"Again... I apologize but threefold times                             ...

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“He fought often and once bled in the cause of freedom, but his habits of War did not lessen in him the peaceful virtues which adorn his private life.”  Doctor Benjamin Rush, signer of...

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The Roman administrators came for the wealth of our worship
demanding that I crack the church's coffers wide open
for their needs, for the Empire's desperate embellishments,
in place of gold I presented the poor
I told the onery...

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"Ground Level Entry"

“She fits the bill”,
they say it 
insouciantly

visions of being 
carried in the beak 
of a bilious pelican 

where it builds
its rudimentary nest, 
it uses sticks and debris

no stones, yet,
from irreverence
thrown at it

no higher...

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                        Expectations high did not pan out,     ...

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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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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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"transference"


transference 
in a narcissistic world
propaganda for the 
unsuspecting
validation 
for the damaged

writers 
soldiers 
victims 
survivors
war fought daily
in shallow trenches

buckling at the knees
stand up 
brave comedians 
salute compatriots and cowards 
caught in their camouflaged net
all the crumbling...

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With the opening of my fortress cell,
solemn-faced men come locust invading in
Their mouths smile not, and eyes neither grin
as ceremonial words pursed lips expel
A deer thought escapes ... my life nears its end!
And I feel...

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2017 - year zero

They loaned to the poor, who cannot repay.
They stole from the old, who cannot recover.
They sold our future, for better or worse
and made our children pay.
They schooled arithmetic to be feared.
They tutored...

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(His Version of Your Secret I’ll Never Tell)

You call me your love, such a sweet endearment from someone I used to know, a sentiment that I am undeserving of and rightfully so
The secret you’re referring...

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Without form and void, 
The world gave a lunatic gaze. 
Lack of luminous light love bought,
Darkness did give her a chase. 
Open to no one was her, 
Water beneath and air above. 
Open to someone...

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"Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting." Robert Frost 


 
"Bees Under Milk Wood : A Spell"



Spider Web glistens wet 
in the spoilt lies of...

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[Note: You will see in the work below connections to other poems I have posted here.  Those poems are tangents to this poem that more completely tell the tale of rise, pride, hubris, fall,...

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When I was a child, I wondered

Was deep sleep, death?

Was every morning a new life, a new incarnation?

Waking up, I found the people around me were the same

I was the same too, nothing changed

This cannot...

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Gone Girl.....

That razor blade
Is her paint brush/
That canvas... Is her wrist
Her rush
Of blood/ To her head/
Means/
She's been painting deep into her flesh!.....

Her pain is still aching/
Her hands dripping with blood
She couldnt stop shaking/
That Paint brush...

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"Seeds"



Blue reaches reflections
touching ripples 
tears in time ephemeral
caresses fragrant Green my canopy

opens the light
inside me 

cracked eggshell 
golden-yoked sunshine
pale turquoise kintsugi
splintered paths inside my mind

in the smallness
of me 
something 
quietly blooms 

ragged yet refined
a gecko...

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Similar if not identical to last year...   
umpteenth heat wave since onset of summer...
sizzles Delaware Valley today August 26th, 2022

Said geographical area composed of counties
located in Southeastern Pennsylvania,
South Jersey, Delaware, and
Eastern Shore of...

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Diary Notes: Lamentable laissez-faire

                     …the lêche cul is
back
       ...

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