Long Runways Poems

Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers II



All Things Galore
by Michael R. Burch

for my grandfathers George Edwin Hurt Sr. and Paul Ray Burch, Sr.

Grandfather,
now in your gray presence
you are

somehow more near

and remind me that,
once, upon a star,
you...

Read More

Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds (I)



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as hummingbird wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching...

Read More

THE CITY AND THE STATE OF PLAY TODAY

No one worries about morals today 
They follow the rules they create
So to them all is ok
Those on the outside looking in 
Are the only ones feeling queasy...

Read More

just within reach?

things!
lots of things!

stuff one could collect,
especially graphic novels
with a writer that made you wish
you had a photographic memory
so you would never forget even one 
consonant or one vowel he wrote.
with an artist who...

Read More

Yardbirds are hopefully smug cockfully strutting, 
     cutting a rug?

         Parked car birds are vigilant vigilantes? 

      ...

Read More

Welcome To The Black Society
Welcome to the dead society
I hope you make through it this poem
I hope I make through this poem
I hope gunshots don't make  it through this poem
Forgive me black society
But I have...

Read More

(Continued from Part 1)


Transparent figures walk at a flirtatious pace
On world-class runways, with no expression on their face
Parading styles you can't afford in your possession
They are the ghostly models of the latest, greatest FASHION.

A millisecond...

Read More

I'll sit on the roof and watch the moon
I'll swallow the pain 
And let my tears flow!

I'll pretend there is a violin with me
I'll pretend that the moon dances
As I play the saddest tunes ever
Merely...

Read More

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from 
The father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning"
       ...

Read More

BOING..?!#! Its off at boeing..' the wheels and doors have
Gone..planes just; over-drive the runways, they're rivalling
Sann-yong..They're rolling in inclusions, like its for a dare!!
People choosing flights right now, for boeing they don't care.' Thery're checking...

Read More

I never prayed for patience 
It was not my forte 
as I'm one who wants things 
to always move right away
but I've learned that life 
is like planting a seed. 
It will grow in its...

Read More

When asked about my personal extreme
Fantasy,
Nothing can hold me back,
When I think of what I’d like to be,
I know for sure creativity will not lack

An average work rate of £1,000,000 an hour
I don’t mean to...

Read More

moved around so fast
outran traces of my past
contacts I'd amassed
with little hesitation
lost sight of situation

not stabilizing
life without compromising
'til next uprising
left holding tight to what was
searching out the next just cause

tangled up in lies
slim prospects can...

Read More

Imagine a standard barrel of crude oil – 42 gallons.
The barrel unit of measure dates back to 1859
When Pennsylvania oil wells were first drilled
And the wooden ‘tierce’ wine cask
Holding 42 gallons and weighing about 300...

Read More

Cat Facts 

Cats have been known to bark at night in Indonesia
People there don’t like them and find them pretentious
For insomnia cats count lives, 9 if I’m not mistaken
If you throw cats from airplanes they...

Read More

The  city is dotted in little wooded sanctuaries. One on the corner of Forsyth and Luckie, a pair of twins on Hill St. If you’re lucky sometimes you can glimpse a group of four...

Read More

Staring at the stubborn facts
I stand face to face with a sneering fate
Legalized pot. Transitive 
Bondage sold as liberty
Man made destructive phase
Don't lie to us as if we're back at puberty

I see you Bobojan, hiding...

Read More

My foot is four legs of a tortoise
My thump is anchor of my docking
My reason is the traffic light of red lights only
My patience is the hand break of a vehicle

Their ‘batakari’ has wings to...

Read More

This world is a bewitching illusion
The spring, the fragrant flowers, the chirping birds
The waterfalls, the sky, the valleys, the clouds
Are nothing real but delusion.

The gigantic snow clad mountains and fathomless seas
Are what is called optical...

Read More

An eruption burst suddenly in Iceland.
Billowing smoke lingers in the air. 
Chaos has now increased on the earth,
Destroying the paths before us.
Everywhere, there is dust and ash.
Flaming, hot, lava bubbles constantly,
Gasping for new openings.
Heavy breathing...

Read More

I used to move as fast as cars
runways built in space and mars.
I would dart as far as I could trace 
the words moving off the chart

Every other sound that rhymes 
Feels like argh, I...

Read More

I figured out
How to make some bucks,
In this town,
Where you oft hear "Ahhhh, Schucks!"

I rented a tent- erected it on busy Rt. 9
Southbound traffic, 50 cent fine...
Northbound cars,
Well, that's a buck,
Ah, darn, it gal, twice...

Read More

Faces come at me as stricken
as graveyard moons.

The supermarket hangs heavy,
laden as it is with neon anchors.
The aisles are runways for empty eyes,
a few sections contain searching bodies.
 
She turns to me at the check-out,
she...

Read More

Two men left the airplane without parachutes
One was a young student not too bright and out for fun
He had sport sneakers on when he departed
The old guy wore heavy worker boots as a rule
Took one...

Read More

Behind Enemy Lines

Behind

I followed through doors and passage ways
Roofs and small runways ..
The boy with a glint in his eye,
He took me up , high high to the very top 
A table under the skies

Knelt...

Read More