Long Schoolgirl Poems

Snapshots
by Michael R. Burch

Here I scrawl extravagant rainbows.
And there you go, skipping your way to school.
And here we are, drifting apart
like untethered balloons.

Here I am, creating "art,"
chanting in shadows,
pale as the crinoline moon,
ignoring your face.

There...

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This is a story about Freddie and Flo,
They lived in Baltimore a long time ago.
It might be called a May-September romance
And shows how love can blossom if it's given a chance.
Flo taught Sunday School, her...

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It is a cold road to my mother’s house.
I have driven it hundreds of times and each time it seems to get colder.
I have cranked up the heat, yet the cold is like a knife...

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Epigrams/Epitaphs

Childless
by Michael R. Burch

How can she bear her grief?
Mightier than Atlas, she shoulders the weight
of one fallen star.

***

Laughter’s Cry
by Michael R. Burch 

Because life is a mystery, we laugh
and do not know the half.
Because death...

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Lisa, a freshman in our residential hall sister-suite, and I have become fast friends over the last couple of weeks. Before we began hanging out I penned a piece about her that she thought was...

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3.

Wrapped close, in implacable, bitter embrace,
The winter grips the land and holds it immobile,
The cat upon its mouse.

Stripped bare and glazed with stony ice
Ashudder beneath a slatecloud sky
That drops its snow in a hush of...

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Sitting in rags all tattered and torn 
He gazed through the window and loved what he saw 
A raging coal fire, and some children to play 
Just what he wished for on a cold winters...

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What should I write on Thanksgiving Day?
I don't think I will write about Thanksgiving
But I will write about a heart not be thankful
When you look around you 
And you don't see what you should be...

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When I was yet in grade school, my teacher gave to me,
a task I thought most surely would be the death of me.
She ordered me to write a verse, in any style I chose,
I will...

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All human life on earth starts in a school! 
In my case I was born just left of hell 
It was a simple time but not that cool 
This hell was time spent in a...

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As I paddled the river Nile
I met a monstrous crocodile. 
She smiled at me enticingly.   
I smiled deferentially.  
Through large white teeth to me she said, 
"I want you in my river...

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is when he of the Mount of Olives
whom you believe keeps the night watch
catches you by surprise with a wash over your spirit
like Baptism, when he suddenly exists "de facto" 
as you are walking, just...

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It seemed to me, when the sun set and his eyes mirrored clouds with raindrops that had yet
to fall, it seemed to me...

we'd been ignoring the weeks it took to get this far.


I'd spoken often,...

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You will tell them that you were raped,
They will say “What clothes were you wearing”,
You will tell them that a boy was making you uncomfortable,
They will say” You are being dramatic”.

They will tell you to...

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Once, many years ago,
When I was a schoolgirl, a student,
I, similar to many, was afraid of war with the USA. 
peals of thunder frightened me,
They were similar to the roar of guns.
I cried from fear...

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It was time for a vacation, in fact it was overdue.
A three day holiday Fourth of July; we planned a trip for two.

The children were in high school and had things to do with friends.
Sometimes...

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Where would we be without a second chance?

  Will you ever forget that pit in your stomach?
     That hollow, empty feeling when
  'The love of your life' walked out...

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YO I JUST WANNA MAKE LOVE TO YOU
IN A VILLA IN CENTRAL PERU
KISSING' YOU LIKE A SCHOOLGIRL WHO CAN'T CONTROL HERSELF
CAN'T IMAGINE MAKING' LOVE IN THE WEST KEY ABORIGINES
MAKING LOVE LIKE THE PORTUGUESE AMORE
TABLE TOPS...

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ON THE DEATH OF GINSBERG

Rain-damp street outside my window voices 
punctuate early morning street dogs 
bark car engines cough start 
someone’s day  
lie in half-light thinking of you Allen Ginsberg 

what demons drove you...

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Her hair, blonde, is twisted in the wind.
The whipping strands are the colors
of the shinning cropland 

by which she is standing. She is alone 
by this golden feed that is bounteous; wholesome as breast milk,...

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Like autumn leaves
the years had withered and blown away.
Her schoolgirl dreams had been set aside or
if appropriate wrapped in gay-patterned paper
and placed beneath the Christmas tree of her heart.

She awoke from dreamless sleep
and wondered who...

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Foolish Heart, since you don’t stop
That most foolish rant and rave
I will have to tie you up
And bury you in a cave

That would surely silence you
And let me live in peace
For now you just torment...

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Dewey decimals assemble 
our common presence. 
Your horticulture hands hide 
that landscaping manual's lengthy title, 
but this is my isle 
and I've held that identical gardening guide 
like a potted plant.

Your sensuous musk spirals through...

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                          Cradle Killed Love

      ...

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***shhhhh.... 

You should be ashamed of yourself, rocking my world turning me 
into a young schoolgirl. 
-giggling and smiling with a secret on my mind, remembering 
the funny things you did the last time; 
-you...

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