Long Rucksack Poems

Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers III




Success
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

We need our children to keep us humble
between toast and marmalade;

there is no time for a ticker-tape parade
before bed, no award, no bright statuette

to be delivered...

Read More

Poems about Children IV

Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch

Dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch, Sr.

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the...

Read More

Day 2

OK, guys, gather round. We’ll just share the thoughts on what you did last night, before we get onto the tasks at hand.
George, would you like to start?
Last night, I was reading the book...

Read More

Pedestrians are moving ups and downs the day can define the differences he experiences in the bathroom, cars buzzing their noise, around my understanding I cannot keep on thrusting for answers which has to be...

Read More

Lisa and I were watching one of our favorite series last night, a Japanese manga called “The Way of the Househusband” and I could barely keep my eyes open. I went to bed at a...

Read More

I owe appreciative courtesy to alternative press...

for enlightening my senses
to the evocative, reciprocative
and suffocative
auditory and visual material
publicized in The Nation
magazine January 2025 issue
on page 59 about Macklemore
(his given birth name
Benjamin Hammond Haggerty)
an American rapper
composed protest...

Read More

Children's Poems IV

These are poems for children and poems about children and their mothers, fathers, grandmother, grandfathers and extended families. 



Boundless
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

Every day we whittle away at the essential solidity of him,
and...

Read More

Atacama, Eden der Winde,
Blume der einsamen Steine und des Salpeters, 
Heimstatt der Flamingos und der Geysire,  
und  über allem, 
unter einem azurenem und tiefem Himmel 
tragen die Berge auf ihren Spitzen  
das...

Read More

Cabin Fever door closes five dollars,
a-Bag Used Book Sale
Sunday, February 23, 2020
hence less than twenty four hours
before avid readers bewail
foregoing scampering across Hillandale
vital poetic proclamation

yours truly doth broadcast,
albeit apologize short notice,
while courtesy warden
at Highland Manor...

Read More

Family Ties



Brothers should I leave you
And travel life for years without you
And should I never return to our home
Remember it was I who journeyed alone

And should the time in passing
Bring me memories of regret
Should the...

Read More

No roof no mood flat affect
Glances empty no space for sorrow
Small rucksack to collect  
No tears to borrow

A sloppy flute
A black and white photo
Of a young boy now mute 
Carpe Diem his motto

Dreamy alone...

Read More

Amy’s Toys

A is animals on top of my bed
which are all laid out in a nice big spread

B is for banana a soft yellow fruit
I pretended to be a monkey in a fancy suit

C is...

Read More

He crouches behind a false wall…hoping, praying,
Listening carefully to the commotion outside.
A knock on the door, another, two more!
They kick the door in and storm inside.
 
Men with rifles, boys with guns,
Searching, preying, abducting, killing,
They...

Read More

The Shed
...was Granddad's before he died.
And now its loneliness reached out to the boy
from the shaded, shuffling shadows 
that shushed the sheltered garden.
They pulled, they tugged at his guilt-filled absence
until he slink-slunked through the greenery,
standing...

Read More

Once in a meadow there lived hippie Sue
Hippie Tony and hippie Jim lived there too
There sitting smoking was hippie Jack 
Making joints from the buds in his hippie rucksack

There was Hippie Emma who cooked the...

Read More

Once glorious, but now rusting buildings, lined every dusty road.
Somehow everywhere clung the smell of cow dung.
My heavy bag, a giant rucksack,
Most of it I shipped right back.
I thought there wasn't much glitz or glamour,
And...

Read More

We clambered on board the train, 
amidst the heat and jostling bodies scrambling in humid air 
that swirled about us. Chatter, noise, whistles 
and barks of laughter. As laconic guards look on 
with impassive and...

Read More

Resuming bulk from those which almost don't exist
Stoic in my unique role, careful timber tiger crafter
Tiny depicted tigers roll on wheels, pulled by strings
Lasting remnants of an animal disappearing faster

Eager tourists, affluent enough to pay...

Read More

Black hoodie, black gloves and a black balaclava 
Allegiances born of belligerent father
A council estate with yards full of tyres
A rucksack that’s laden with tin tacks and wires 

Cars outside boozers where loyalist losers
Don’t spot...

Read More

Cats

Patiently, cats eyed, alert and poised for action;
More than ready to eat, not greet, or fuss affectionately,
'She’busies herself with the important work
of savaging your rucksack straps;
‘He’, inspecting cupboards and wincing at draughts,
looks on, anticipating some...

Read More

Homeless Alexander

Why are you so bloody happy,
Living in your cardboard box.
Looking at life from street-level,
Holes in your boots and socks.
 
Hello Alexander, my old friend,
Did you enjoy luncheon at the Ritz?
Just popped into Tesco express,
Got...

Read More

I am the invisible man that shuffles these desolate streets, people passing by or through me as if I'm a ghost.
My appearance must scare them, my street attire practicality not Halloween, it's never always been...

Read More

He may have been a rogue, but boy he had charisma
Liked by many he was, even with a feather in his hair
From job to job he, never heeding his tomorrows day
Simply didn't give a damn,...

Read More

Down, down the known street where
 the quite evening lying down, my legs took me a walk
 Sending the sun to west, something that street holding
for me. 

Little, little lonely voices' hands knocking my ears 
 from...

Read More

<
Beasley and I

Lem Griffiths

July, 2016


Henrietta D. something,
Never did mind him on top 'her,
'Least she never said, t'other, anyhow .
Beasley's my friend.., 
Comes and goes his own ways - and whenever -
Rises and rests with the...

Read More