Long Rubicon Poems

You Never Listened
by Michael R. Burch
 
You never listened,
though each night the rain
wove its patterns again
and trembled and glistened...
 
You were not watching,
though each night the stars
shone, brightening the tears
in her eyes palely fetching...
 
You...

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Pay heed to those deeds from whence the heart must confess...
You're far from Rome Proconsul Caesar...
As they say, "All roads lead to Rome" Ariovistus
and all tresspasses are treated as threats of war...
My recent conquest of...

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  MAGDALENE : JEWEL OF JESUS 


She was the Chosen
a beckoned one
to ignite His speeches 
smooth it with her own
illustrious strength
‘Courage against Odds’
marked her inner Jewel 
 soft it lay cradled  
rhapsodic rubicon...

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"Skinwalker"


That one’s mind 
is like a scene from Chagall
dreams flow like blood bleeds
across the cortex page curtain call
an audience with the silent speakeasy 
cerebellum with its swift
matter-of-factness 
logically guides the fingers 
to dance across keys...

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Unitarian Church returnee

After a hiatus of countless years
plus an additional 
almost three months 
since a major makeover,
(I experienced the magic
wrought courtesy
a bonafide big hearted 
beautician at Salon Nova
located in beautiful 
downtown Limerick, Pennsylvania

to render my...

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Who is the man in the mirror that stares back at me through eyes of blue that can scarce seen behind lenses reflecting bright light?
Those eyes appear so young and vibrant, though cast behind a...

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                                  ...

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Antinatalist Poems

Habeas Corpus
by Michael R. Burch 

I have the results of your DNA analysis.
If you want to have children, this may induce paralysis.
I wish I had good news, but how can I lie?
Any offspring you...

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I am strange—so strange
that I self-destructed and don't regret it.
—Jaun Elia, translation by Michael R. Burch

The wound is deep—companions, friends—embrace me!
What, did you not even bother to stay?
—Jaun Elia, translation by Michael R. Burch

My nature...

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Written: May 06, 2025 for contest by Edward Ibeh
                   
       ...

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A cupola shin, prickly dick creed, hoary 
 testes tossed, master baiting ova all eel trades
crossed the fecund Rubicon and ejaculated 
   olly olly oxen yawping, in utero seminal raids
with phallic coup d’etat...

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Suffering from the I'll effects of
terminal overloading of my brain
operation at full capacity 

The strain is palpable and starting 
on my face to show

These city streets and skyscraper
building floor wall's 

I fear are leading me...

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I have been writing since a child ...
    my little stories ... made my family smile
       but as I grew older I wrote deeper
  ...

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Owning the ability to strikingly be on a rough road. 
Need the pride to cross the hazardous paddled rowed. 
Caesar energetically settled on a terrible decision. 
Cross a no-return line for Rome's dictator to goad.

When...

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Family unity, ties bound with conditions
Cult peoples kept from alternate climates
Narrow track administered to every woman
Mother of two, Jerusha determined to fight it

Prospect of allowed departure non existant
Packed full backpacks for herself, Cain, Ismail 
Heart...

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When testing time invades profoundly my private space
I build a wall to protect the sanctum of the inner woods,
create a captive cocoon of imposed isolation 
for the soul to be preserved in the bliss of...

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Don't set me free and then cry for me
       I'm your precious dove; think before 
   Springing me from the cage, lest you feel
   ...

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Through the galleries of dreaming, where evening strings its somber beads,
The echo of a twilight stifles discreetly on the plain bound for eternal crossing;
Floating, floating over the velvet of darkness seeking its release.
Diaphanous sages, adorned...

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In the mist of the journey’s penultimate mile,
at the edge of the fading fulcrum of future obscure,
at the door-step of dusk the sunset swansong resonates
for the forlorn essence silhouetted in confounding stillness.

The twirling threads of...

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If she had to cross the rubicon for lack of sorting colours

	A Rubik’s cube remained an unsolved puzzle

If numbers granted her the wish to live another happy day

	Sudoku would refuse transformation from a maze

If chess...

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Running full throttle and redlined                              ...

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Through the galleries of dreaming, where evening beads its somber pearls,
An echo of twilight suffocates discreetly across the plain towards eternal passing;
It floats, it floats over the velvet blackness seeking escape.
Ethereal sages, adorned with the...

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it was the day of her birth
when she stood at the Styx
naked but with all bags packed
with immanent sadness and joy
too young for being ambiguous
she let out a scream and let down
a reflex for simply...

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I left my mind tangled in the cob-web of my attic
filled with dust-covered books 
to stroll to the basement of my coal-stained thoughts...unarmed
but still a witness to it all
though my searching eyes be plucked from...

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Standing atop your plateau as if divinity has made you a martyr with in the eyes of your deceived people, with a mighty rant as you pound your fist and whip the tranced crowd into...

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