Long Rio Poems

It was Christmas Eve and I was at the airport,
Not a soul in sight, almost deserted, it was 10.00 pm,
Only two hours before Christmas day,
Perhaps if I got on a plane, I would see Santa...

Read More

Unquotable quotes: Fat People – XXIX

(I know this piece sounds mean and cruel but as every single parent must have experienced, this is also the expression of utter exasperation, and perhaps there’s also the slightest...

Read More

The East Meets West Philosophy Association
had their annual 2020 conference in Rio,
when and where anything multiculturally lusty
is more likely to happen,
especially between sunset
and sunrise.

Coincidentally
and existentially
and phenomenologically
and ecologically
and ethologically
and epistemologically,
and astrologically,
and metaphorically,
it was necessarily
and sufficiently
and justly
and...

Read More

Tell her you saw me ...

Tell her I was out on the bluff at the Cape
during a gale, much too close to the rocks.
Tell her the surf was tormenting the ledges,
its roar far too loud...

Read More

tell her you saw me ...

tell her I was out on the bluff at the Cape during a gale, much too close to the rocks … tell her the surf was tormenting the ledges, its...

Read More

Bolsonaro was president of Brazil from 2019 to 2023.
Former army officer and right-wing nationalist who revered Brazil's 1964–1985 military rule.
Jair Bolsonaro sought to arm a disarmed nation.
To a place where gun ownership meant freedom.
Anti-establishment populism...

Read More

Under the bridge in Del Rio are stopped, stuck, stationed
Thousands of migrant Haitians, not Ukrainians
Frankly, if they were the latter, they wouldn’t be sanctioned
Detained, abased, mistreated and deported like Haitians
Like herds of cattle to detention...

Read More

I know you've heard the story.
I think everybody has.
About the Downey boy who won second place
In everything that was.

In that Southern California city,
Downey was its name,
In every city-wide contest,
Dave's results seemed just the same.

Second place...

Read More

 SEA WANTS ME

Waves are here for the winners
spirals floating in turquoise 
dance ululating undulating 
blue bright sight
a point with paddle board
to soar sanguine Seas
I know not whether I’m 
merman or beach sand speck
two meters...

Read More

Cowpoke
by Michael R. Burch, circa age 16

Sleep, old man...
your day has long since passed.
The endless plains,
cool midnight rains
and changeless ragged cows
alone remain
of what once was.

You cannot know
just how the Change
will rape the windswept plains
that you...

Read More

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

Read More

"Walk" - a simple word uttered.
The dogs jump at the door,
that old, creaky, wooden door,
at the mere mention of the word.
Open mouthed with tongues hanging out of the side,
panting and whining with glee,
they wait impatiently,...

Read More

I have waited for the New Age--that Tranelike return to my Mediterranean Sundance Always and Forever missing the  journey of the Caravansary of old.
Hence, Only Time and the touch of the Rio Ancho, its...

Read More

pandemoniac incredulity sweeps the fat globe

illusion in disguise and sweet dreams of equality 

the grim reaper measures invincible destruction

finally attempts to be fair at least once in a life time

‘fear not for I am a...

Read More

With a heavy heart,
the sorrow in it 
feels 
           all
	       hope
        ...

Read More

He was old and haggard, in the year nineteen twenty something
A tall lanky old man, with a worn out hat and a rusty ring
His squint blues eyes pulled together the wrinkles upon his face
With an...

Read More

I had meet Gigi Fernandez at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

at the tail end of Flower Power with the scent of carefree loving in the air

exchange students finding themselves in a different world...

Read More

Cracked beer bottles and detached baby rattles in slightly untidy, black plastic wrappers.
No garbage can nor box or bag is exempt from the burrower’s thorough ransack.
Rancid rubbish, rich with unwanted tidbits, 
And the bounty -...

Read More

Word Requiem in D Minor

Hello.
Fancy meeting you here. 
Last time we met like this?
That would be 1979, at Rio.
I remember we walked slowly 
Up to the second floor balcony, 
Of the overlooking science building,
Scanning with...

Read More

Down in old El Casa Rio was a sheriff feared by all. 
People swore an oath that he was seven feet tall.
One morning in the heat of 1863 on an August day, 
rode three bad...

Read More

There’s many a tale that spreads across the night
when the sun o’er the plains yields to campfire light. 
Tales about cowboys, who once roamed the plains, 
scratching a living using their rope and reins

A few...

Read More

We've a third string coach running the team
who can't even remember his own play book
so a batch of amateurs 
are running the show
from the bench
from the trenches
of their minds

Its a play book mirroring  ...

Read More

Never have put all my faith, in someone I've not met
but when it comes to Presidents, I had to hedge my bet
I listened, just to what was said, from the horses mouth
teleprompter easy read, what's...

Read More

Life is oh so Short
                              ...

Read More

Day one out of the womb – had a full crop of hair,
black like my daddy’s (it later went more fair).

Early childhood – Mom kept my brown hair short
because I’d twist it into knots. What...

Read More