Long Scything Poems

  On white lines on valiant wheels
I head north leaving behind the City of Sails
       with its humourless streets,
    its casino steel and glass Sky...

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God cannot intervene in sovereignty 
and the boy will plead no innocence. 
Seedlings  cannot control the wind,
in birth the Oak has called their name
 a command from the forest  unseen.

A  biblical sandstorm...

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Poppy
by Michael R. Burch

“It is lonely to be born.” – Dannie Abse, “The Second Coming”

It is lonely to be born
between the intimate ears of corn . . .
the sunlit, flooded, shellshocked rows.

The scarecrow flutters, listens,...

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Written: August 25, 2023
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In the realm of the morning moon,
A tale of passion shall be strewn,
Where bleached rays against the sky,
Unveil secrets with each sigh.

The brightening blue, a canvas true,
Witnesses a swift scything through,
In solitary...

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The old tree has long been felled,
And you  need to know the ground
To find  the last few signs of
Sunken family grave mounds.
The graveyard is now full
And it was thought for the best
To find...

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(Let it be recorded far and wide
That the sun shone brilliantly with pride
And bright azure were the skies
The day he entered Paradise.)

Slight of build,small of frame,
His ginger head weel kent throughout the game.
A buzz of...

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It’s  voice causes the shiver
its name causes the stagger
tremours boiling
fettle downpouring
Heartbeats panicking
families isolating

Like a turret, it oozes
like a trumpet, it blows
emanating shockwaves
spurring Venom
hissing sparks
scything down humans like grass.

Some say the states gave it light
But...

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When did I die for you?
When was the moment I ceased to exist
Becoming no more than a shadowy memory
Another conquest amongst so many others
Another notch on your belt and a heart thrust away
Shattered into kaleidoscope...

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Standing hoeing garden stones
Eyes awash with tears
As memories flood back from
More than sixty years,
To the little village churchyard
For which my dad cared
And which duty I, as a child,
So very unwillingly shared.

He dug the graves, cut...

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Just off the busy road there’s a dirt lane
that leads to a weather-worn covered bridge
where Red Tails gather at eventide.

In the sunlight the birds flicker on hot winds,
rest and watch on pylons and poles,
then rise...

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Just off the busy road there’s a dirt lane
that leads to a weather-worn covered bridge
where Red Tails gather at eventide.

In the sunlight the birds flicker on hot winds,
rest and watch on pylons and poles,
then rise...

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(a turtle creation story)

Turtle flexed his jaws
as hard as secateurs.
Monkey-See saw
flew up the slippery trees
mimicking
the snapping sound
above the mealy ground.

It was the first Saturday night
and most of the good things,
and most of the mischief
had been...

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The gleaming warriors of Light advance
Aflame with Life, their shields aglow with gold
And lambent fire a glint from sword and lance.
Their silver battle-axes flash and flourish, bold

And brutal in mad massacre.  The hordes
Of Death...

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On a night in October when the full moon beams
Marsh noises resonate, all is not what it seems

The wind rustles the reeds with a haunting chilling sound
As the awakening dead arise from their dormant cold...

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https://allpoetry.com/contest/2732933-Good

It talks about how I have changed since becoming a Christian. At one time I was nothing short of a jerk. I was addicted to drugs and suffering from a head injury that caused personality...

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There are wild horses in the heather;
their neighing follows the wake
of hewing wind-wraiths.
The ponies are hardy and stout, they go
in and out of the clouds, slip through
swale and dingle.

The moors are high. You don't feel...

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Bat-blind to looming gripe and cold decay,
Clueless shoots jump onto life's gay stage,
Oblivious of Grim Fate's scything designs
That waste with disease and stealing age. 

They wouldn't turn around and at once behold
Slowly waning sires with...

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Beethoven smashes one piano after another.
He shears through keyboards,
a peasant scything hay.
The composer's fingers listen
through touch,
they become deeper, more blunted,
a vibration of mallets.

Frown the brow,
push the plow
make music drive a steamroller.

His apartment is disorderly,
tools and...

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An advent of raptors haunts the scant gray woods
or loiters over mall roofs.
We wake to their screams as if this were high sierra,
not Ohio where parents try-out or manage children,
open party stores, hunker through the...

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Flippers so languidly beat
As mates float in the deep
Coupling dreamily on a lazy tide

And when it is time
She shall lie
Upon a secret hollow

Known only to her
And the King of tides
To pledge her young before a...

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Beethoven smashes one piano after another.
He shears through keyboards,
a peasant scything hay.
The composer's fingers don't grow deaf,
they become deeper, more blunted,
like mallets.

His apartment is disorderly,
tools and equipment
are hidden in Dresden figurines,
in elderly Delftware,
ball-peen hammers crammed
into...

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Beethoven smashes one piano after another.
He shears through keyboards,
a peasant scything hay.
The composer's fingers don't grow deaf,
they become deeper, more blunted,
like mallets.

His apartment is disorderly,
tools and equipment
are hidden in Dresden figurines,
in elderly Delftware,
ball-peen hammers crammed
into...

Read More

An advent of raptors loiters over mall roofs.
hooded eyes scope the neon-lit spaces,
the concreted waste lands.

We wake to their screams as if this were High Sierra,
not Ohio where parent’s try-out or manage children,
open party stores,...

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Daybreak

So cold the night, like dead man’s hands,
Alone the weary watchman stands
cloak wrapped against the scything breeze,
His salt burned eyes cast to the seas.

Charts, geometric instruments,
In Illuminated casements,
All glint and gleam by candlelight,
Dancing devils in...

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You know they are coming
See the dust in the air
Feel the ground tremble beneath your feet.
Can't quite see them
But you know they are there
Suddenly your face is white as a sheet.

The Horsemen are riding
Your world...

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