Long Scouring Poems

Here We Shall Remain
by Tawfiq Zayyad
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Like twenty impossibilities
in Lydda, Ramla and Galilee ...
here we shall remain.

Like brick walls braced against your chests;
lodged in your throats
like shards of glass
or prickly cactus...

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Prose Poems II
by Michael R. Burch

These are prose poems (is that an oxymoron?) and experimental poems...



briefling
by Michael R. Burch

manishatched, hopsintotheMix, cavorts, hassex (quick!, spawnanewBrood!); then, likeamayfly, he’s suddenly gone: plantfood.



bachelorhoodwinked
by Michael R. Burch

u are charming...

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[ ... story with context, a plausible universe with top and bottom
  a coat of cosmos covering
  over a subterranean protoverse of potential fields
  a quantum cellar creating
  the very big...

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My jubilant latent, nascent poetic tribute to black history month

Which acknowledgement ought to be year round,
similar to altruistic, humanistic, and philanthropic
unconditional acceptance and respect
crafted with the following words 
mostly written January 23rd, 2023,
cuz I, (a...

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Date:  October   2050

Cool October afternoon. Damali 
Damian Sidney Amadeus Dolly 
Molly and Holly planned a sort of 
small birthday celebration for Desharah
 and Sedanah both would soon be in
 the beginning of...

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Nascent poetic tribute to black history month...
crafted before onset when people of color  
got acknowledged for twenty eight or nine days
depending if leap year occurred. 

Though I yam Caucasian,
rightful to honor most bitter
racist genocidal...

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My nascent poetic tribute to black history month

more apropos and alternately titled: 
praise to thee people 
of variegated melanin color,
whose immense understated improvements
and enhancement of webbed wide world
worth more than paltry words
of yours truly can...

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Inevitable death defines afterlife

I mull mortality 
thru lens crafted occipital orbs
regarding a better future
experience sing a space oddity – 
whar incessant yaks
exuding a big hurt
emanate as cosmic atomic 
bipedal hominids replete roof lee wax
during a...

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It must have been the darkest, deepest fate time create,
People saw and forgot the impact when history intervened. 
We forgive and endure, but our minds will not forget
The Bizarre world trying to suppress our African...

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The moon has groaned home;

And soon the shadow’s drum,

Resonates the rhythmic silhouette,

To the ferocious pains of the spine;

Hear the heavy throbs of the drum,

The panting steps of the trumpet,

And the singing sage of the flute.

See...

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Ability to defecate wildly swings (both ways)...
between incontinence and constipation

Irritable bowel syndrome i.e.
the former excretory bout I address
the above (polite way to phrase diarrhea)
and avoid moon efficient cheekiness,
yours truly doth buttress,
a literal warranted pain in...

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Did I say What I said You said

You said looking a little forlorn
						a little redundant
	the contradicting crosses in your eyelashes
   thrusting forth the brazen prophet in you for the day
   ...

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Heart Of Stone

What a heart wrenching piece of news..
In today’s spread of daily news…
Boldly headlined ‘Mom: No Forgiveness”
It was about filial hurt and devastated dreams.  

This news worthy piece of news was rather brief..
The...

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Lighthouse keeper vacancy announced
Envelope delivered; contents read aloud
A smile turned into laughter, then into a shout
Parents and Son hugged before he set off.

Applicants sitting quietly, Into the room strides a man 
Age etched on his...

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2 million suicidal babies
the munchonsen of psychiatry
just pushed me over the edge
what do we say when we cross the border?
we're going to disneyland
what are we going to do when we get there
inform as many innocents...

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I hear their idle chatter and wish that sound was optional.
A box checked in a menu, a simple click and forget.

The rapid dilation of my pupils brings me back.
Back to hypnotic aisles of temptation and...

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Oh fallen star of Bethlehem, your established moment shines,
upon canvas of harsh intent, descendent of heavenly design?

A mighty angel’s leading light to those befallen, pleasure-bent?
Are gleaming eyes  masking spites or, our demands, aspiring content?

Looking...

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Seeming to decipher,
The count of the sample,
Whether white, red or dead,
It appears, each is ample,
The blood of our lives,
Not the fluid, arterial,
But the beings, among them,
Usurped the toy in your cereal,
Their daily appearance,
At the start...

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Wings flutter
     off in the distance
as I shuffle through these stones,
tasting the energy trapped in each,
scouring my lands
         for my lost crystal,
that which...

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this just one example of many peoples
   UNFAIRLY subjected
to subservience and exempt
   from enjoying the fruits of their labor.

January twelfth two thousand and ten
(original date this communique writ then 
kept wedged...

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January twelfth two thousand and ten
October seventh two thousand  eighteen
and again August fourteenth,
two thousand and twenty one 
witnessed near annihilation and destruction 
of the Haitian nation, 
(especially courtesy first and third aforementioned)
whereby countless/ nameless...

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Human Organs Anyone

Early this morning, there was this dire warning over social media...
Of a van apprehended in Thailand filled with bodies of dead children..

There was a disturbing photo of young children, some half naked...
Laid out...

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(writing for the voice of my son who has terminal illness)

Reality is searingly intimate. But they say anguish,
woes and sadness are emotions best shared.
I am not saying I enjoy lamenting on them or heaping
tribulations on...

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the sick sun returns to die my stomach stings squirms and burns eternity is calling out a warm meal my jaw tenses up the breath goes into my swollen throat a lady bug crawls on...

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Jesus was a patristic carpenter,
a non-nationalistic builder
of goodnews communal structure,
a nonviolent communicating leader,
a multispirit-natural facilitator,
divinely humane bilateral
spiritual health is natural wealth
facilitator of recreative green
and blue
and red-blooded sensory communion.

I am a mere custodian
of messianic intention,
practice,
discipline,
caring for...

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