Long Scalpels Poems

Nucleotidings
by Michael R. Burch

“We will walk taller!” said Gupta,
sorta abrupta,
hand-in-hand with his mom,
eyeing the A-bomb.

“Who needs a mahatma
in the aftermath of NAFTA?
Now, that was a disaster,”
cried glib Punjab.

“After Y2k,
time will spin out of control anyway,”
flamed...

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Rejection Slips

With over 5,700 publications if I count poems that have gone viral, I suppose I shouldn’t complain … but I do have some poems that have never been accepted for publication. Here are a...

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Those primeval skies, no man ever knew
Ignited, as one massive boulder burst through
Hollow inside, creatures not unlike mice
Strapped themselves in as they plunged into ice
Instantly boiled then instantly frozen
None were to question the planet they'd...

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Those primeval skies, no man ever knew
Ignited, as one massive boulder burst through
Hollow inside, creatures not unlike mice
Strapped themselves in as they plunged into ice
Instantly boiled then instantly frozen
None were to question the planet they'd...

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Boob jobs and bomb jobs

Sisters in arms those tits and those weapons of massive 
destruction sex and death go together in dynamics
thermodynamics psychodynamics fused on the playground 
of this life of this poem on which...

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We could speak together,
Decry rabid violence of chronically stressed kids
and young adults acting like kids,
apparently regardless of income or race;
perhaps not of enculturation.

Feeling claustrophobic,
anxious about an unpromising competitive future,
drowning in inch-deep and narrow boxed-in mentoring...

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The phrase "Music to my ears" has been injected toward the 
wrong part of my body, and most unpleasantly personified. 
There is a record player that I let skip and scratch on purpose, hearing 
colorful...

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Though all are blessed with eyes to see,
Eyes never lay sight upon the seer;
No retina perceives the seedling
beneath its iris.

Ocular nerves sense Occam-ented pictures
Of identity: portraits framed by
Ourselves, Us, and Others
- Whose eyes perceived whole
But...

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Flies, drawn to their only sustenance, cloud around my head.
In this cloudless desert sky  - blank, deep-arching cavern of thought  - 
Unblinking  sun stares down but this fire-bird will not fly,
Has no...

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This fool doth not consider himself wise,
writing paltry poetry difficult
to read and/or actualize
methinks perusers of great literature
snub nose how I miserably advertise,

laughable attempt to aerobicise
fifty plus shades of gray matter
lobbying showy words agonize
zing effort perhaps...

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We came here pretentious, egoistic, hyper-inflated with our meager academic laurels and
filled with self-adulation of our GPAs
You saw us plainly; our minds almost blank like a tabular rasa, but you saw potential and
so gently humbled...

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Intravenous therapy,
She's watching over me.
Grasping my hand,
She whispers, "please dear, count to ten."

Six... piercing paralysis,
Her hand cold as the air.
She lets go, leaving me there.
Alone, squirming, for just one prayer.

Yelling, and screaming.
Kicking, twisting, and questioning.
Nothing...

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at last he knows what
has been kicking his ass all these years
living a slow trauma smelling of empire
guardians of civilization on strike or asleep
concluding that non-conformists are all alike
but wait I am harsh this is...

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One man
Stands
Beneath his white helmet
And demands,

Silence.

Throughout Aleppo.

His stethoscope,
He attaches
To the dust
And listens
From his knees.

The man has
Ten fingers,
A dry brush
And a pair of pliers
To dig like an archeologist.

He does not have years,
But minutes
To search the ruins
For...

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The battle raged on, the artist uninjured, but soaked in blood,
The dead and dying, cursed by good aim they still feel.
The valley split by the cool of water…and a crimson mud
The noise of the pain...

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I try not to think about it, my friend.
It's so horrible, and yet, 
I'm on beer ten, and I won't see you again - 
So, I'll tell you a secret.

No, it's not what happened in...

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Kill the Silent One

(Silent Killer)


He has invaded, unseen
Lurking and silent
Evil destroying one and all
From cell to cell
Crawling underneath
Leaching blood and soul
Smiles are murdered
Futures destroyed
Families ruined
The silent one is a killer
Who must be killed

The order has...

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Word Painting In Black and White

Cubed ice dismantling the plank bridge with pliers 
made of syrup spilled with a dash of grief and brawn 
the reptilian doughboy mixes up another cosmic batch 
of truth cookies...

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moribund she wondered what

the postmortem would leave

other than a dead body and wounds

made by the many scalpels of life

operations gone wrong and stitch-ups

with sutures festering at the seams


as a mere mortal she had not chosen

the...

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The slice and the dice of the body is divine, 
their is nothing quite like feeling the body convulse as you plunge the scalpel in again
and again 
The screams are a sweet musical melody that...

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He had seen chicken necks 
twisted and broken in Chinese markets, 
the plucked dismemberment 
of flapping wings. 

With help, 
he could have strung his carcass up 
like a hog on a hook. 
He would have...

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between us there is only one,
with something to offer,
one who takes,
one who requests nothing,
one who never stops to ask,
there can be no compromise,
the moment for sharing,
has passed beyond recalling,
these words are the remnant,
of a scourged...

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A ticket pinned to the thigh reserves it,
the whole cadaver is parceled off - of course.
Legs are a late harvest, these often-indigent parts
carry a visual poverty long after the body is plucked.

Under watchful eyes the...

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I get this job every year
I have never been to medical school and I am just a lowly nurse
Yet it seems that every year my family hands me the electric scalpels and puts me to...

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rotten molars unnerved her moribund hunger for living on

she extracted the pain with blunt scalpels pliers and hammer

damaged her smile as well but with the cornerstones removed

in the aftermath of destruction nothing was left but...

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