Long Rivals Poems

Sic semper evello mortem tyrannis, high bred poiet?s of mine

     ("Thus always I cause the death of tyrants.”)
the purported line Brutus uttered 
after assassinating Julius Caesar.

     Alternatively...

Read More

Sappho fragment #155
translation by Michael R. Burch 

A short revealing frock?
It's just my luck
your lips were made to mock!

*

Sappho fragment #156
translation by Michael R. Burch 

She keeps her scents
in a dressing-case.
And her sense?
In some undiscoverable...

Read More

Various Heresies 3

Breakings
by Michael R. Burch

I did it out of pity.
I did it out of love.
I did it not to break the heart of a tender, wounded dove.

But gods without compassion
ordained: Frail things must break!
Now...

Read More

Now is going on through a secret way
Between the martyrdoms and the ground wall,
My master, and I behind him to stay.

“Oh highest virtue, who me gently haul
In wicked rounds”, I started, “If you please,
Speak to...

Read More

Alexander The Great was born in Macedonia in 356 BC, led to believe
From a boy by Olympias his mother, and to conceive
He was born of the gods, legend inferred he was the son of Zeus,
Ruler...

Read More

Prelude to what…..

I see you,  /  you / yes, come into my…… 
laboratory of alchemist mystical languaging.
where arsenic spills into the whirlpool of thought 
and savage syntax shatter like glass on concrete.

Where Titans...

Read More

And still his death haunts webbed wide world post American Civil War

Preface: On the evening of April 14, 1865, while attending a special performance of the comedy, "Our American Cousin," President Abraham Lincoln was shot.

President...

Read More

Lost libido as rez erected cockamamie Shtrungool haint no prickly fallacy

The following pastiche 
poetically pricked prick,
whereby fantasy courtesy Eros 
(????) cow licked
country bumpin videlicet hick
bullied who consider me 
on account of a dinky dick.

Me primate...

Read More

There Is This Dark Place Where I Go

There is this dark place where I go 
when feeling overwhelmed
When life is too much to go on
My light all but dispelled

I take myself up to my room
And...

Read More

RESURRECTION OF A HEROE:
This is ANDERSON WALKINGSHOES... 
CHORUS:
Far from comparison, far from fear.
Failure part of the journey; shed no tears.
Man...do... the best you can do.
Talents in your hand's only for you. 
No body cares...what you...

Read More

Suddenly, two Indian boys throw themselves into the water like meteors
swiming towards camp chatty as prarie dogs,
they hail from a Teton encampment of 74 lodges a few miles up river
most of the men are feeling...

Read More

Poets Collective multi-site network 
Canzone
The canzone is an Italian form with strong similarities to the sestina. There are no rhymes; instead there are five keywords that determine the structure of the poem. Every line of...

Read More

Ford's Theater, April 15th, 1865...
Petersen House, Washington, D.C.

I admit to own a passion
for the Civil War in general,
and the life and death of
the sixteenth president in particular
between a hard spot of whiskey
and draughts of arrack;
nonetheless...

Read More

1.

Our blessing, our son, our family clown
The cracker of jokes, the soother of strife
Takes it all in, teaches us to slow down
Although he bungee jumped straight into life

Yes, when he’s ready, he can move so...

Read More

I aped to a blue heron to a man who wrote his deed.
Once you're at the final of the story, no woe is needed.

If death appeared to be appropriate, life would be aimless.
If you have...

Read More

Booth made famous on April 15th, MDCCCLXV... 
Sic semper tyrannis ad mortem
("Thus always I bring death to tyrants").

Ever since early forerunners 
of twenty first century
mankind (sprinted 
across trackless expanse extant
upon planet Earth), 
modern Homo Sapiens...

Read More

The atmosphere is about to change 
In a way that can't be explained
Families will be reunited and fires will be reignited.

The most important things in life touch your heart the most, 
Have no currency and...

Read More

Mark my word...
Das führer Donald Trump will return with a vengeance

Trump wracked up an impressive 
$122.00 million war chest
accumulating $82.00 million
merely proffering impish grin
between January and June of 2021;
now he sets his sites and will...

Read More

we're going all the way down the road of fate      
Well-being depends on a collective plate.  
Our souls are laden with sorrow and debate,     
And...

Read More

Perplexity of man has given birth
to all the suns that fill the universe.
A world at war shall advocate its worth
as Armageddon’s architects converse.
Their brilliancy sets forth upon a path
to glean the pits of Hell where...

Read More

She runs for President
investing  less carbon footprint and dollars
than did her less permacultural rivals,
a top campaign priority.

He invests his Stone Soup platform
with organic roots of cooperative intent
inviting us to share both what we have...

Read More

Pandora's BoX

Whom to blame?
What woman now walks, the lethal ancestress
Of the original ancestress, that one named 
Pandora, that one with the gleaming eyes that said:

   "I want; I need, to know?"

Where is she...

Read More

There’s a new American Holiday, guess what it is my football loving friends,
It’s a classical sport of champions, where helmet headed, game geared
Warriors challenge raw brawn against skill’s swiftness, to conquer and win,
With screaming fans,...

Read More

I recall the day she journeyed to the delta from her village above the first cataphract with a New Kingdom attitude and an Old Kingdom strut, inspiring rumors to be passed from shadoof to shadoof...

Read More

Bartender Oh Bartender
(a stout rendition of O Captain! My Captain!
Perfect rhythmic rhyme with tonic 
when the doth ale).

Mine eyes espy the glory per the ending 
of another work day beckon Baileys Irish Creme
with Absolut certainty...

Read More