Long Sepulchers 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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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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Vampire Poetry

Pale Though Her Eyes
by Michael R. Burch
 
Pale though her eyes,
her lips are scarlet
from drinking of blood,
this child, this harlot
 
born of the night
and her heart, of darkness,
evil incarnate
to dance so reckless,
 
dreaming of...

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Vampires
by Michael R. Burch

Vampires are such fragile creatures;
we fear the dark, but the light destroys them...
sunlight, or a stake, or a cross—such common things.
Still, late at night, when the bat-like vampire sings,
we heed his voice.

Centuries...

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Kind Of Blue (For Miles Davis)

Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx Ny 1991


Before they could lower Miles 
into the damp, dark ground
Two of the PALL BEARERS
Thought they heard musical sounds

Before the Preacher could say
Turn your BiblesTo Acts, 
The...

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These are modern English translations of ancient Egyptian Harper's songs. 

Harper's Song: Tomb of Djehutiemheb
translation by Michael R. Burch

The sky is opened for you,
the earth opened for you, 
for you the good path leads into...

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I.

Gray dusk, chaos, grave loss.
All yours before divine blood came
Walking amongst the rot, rumors and tumors of the wild and tame
In quest to satisfy their wame
To take them from valleys to peaks by a flesh...

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The candle light never stopped burning for aeons ago,
A hushed rustle of applause testified to a widespread approbation,
That was on the day he was certificated in the University,
Indeed, he was a bookish arbiter of conduct;...

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This the truth will always be – 
amity between Sam and Abdalla; 
finding Bigfoot, 
gathering the ocean’s blue; a perfect wedlock; 
Hollywood; Fox News; Joel Osteen.
There is no place where freedom is not 
sacrificed for...

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Into the tunnel we went
In search of danger, black deeds and terrifying mystery
Armed as the Romans for this ghastly adventure
With EMF*, night vision and digital recorders
Prepared to capture in these haunting sepulchers
Disembodied voices, and hair...

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Take me away,
from my family, friends and the society,
In a hearse or the Bugatti La Voiture Noire.
Take me away,
from the surface of the earth and the Black Race,
Like a pest on a crop,
The truth must...

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No romance today.


The cemetery was deserted,
at the far edge of the tiny village,
shrouded in a fine sultry fog.
Large black trees threw darkened shadows
over the deserted gruesome sepulchers.

Few cared to visit, few cared to tend the...

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Tis alright for the sun has yet to set beyound the sea is what I said; thought

And as long as their is a sliver of light in the day then there remains, a ray of...

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Standing proud are the buildings they’ve erected
Bold and tall, contemporarily dressed
in concrete and metal attire
Architects of the future
laying down their visionary foundation in the present
Rising up from the ground
are their impure skyscraper dreams of global...

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An alluring art of vivacious symbols and meanings,
Fig leaf has many religious political leanings;  
Though apple was the fruit Adam and Eve had once eaten,
It's fig leaf that had hidden them when they felt...

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When night descends,
The heavens celebrate,
The birth of stars
Through the tossing trees,
They send down their toothless smiles
The Moon too smiles with glee,
Like a pleased mother.

The Earth in darkness,
Looking at the illumined sky,
Follows suit and lights up

Street...

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She drifts through the visions of someone else’s life,
searching for an essence of purpose.
She wonders where the one she loves has gone.
Why does she feel so lonely, so lost and detached?
She roams in the soft...

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As night descends, the heavens celebrate,
The birth of stars
Through the tossing trees,
They send down their toothless smiles
The Moon too smiles with glee,
Like a pleased mother.

The Earth in darkness,
Looking at the illumined sky,
Follows suit and lights...

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It is the only time we get to laugh at black
So de rigeur at funerals and stogy old photography.
Take Dixie Land at home in New Orleans
Parading back of happy brass from marble sculpted sepulchers.

A ...

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Forget not those who sacrificed that we might enjoy this special day.

Our cherished freedoms we owe to them who in hallowed sepulchers lay.

Undulating o'er this blessed nation the Grand Old Flag does yet wave.

Resolute Founding...

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Sometimes the Dead
by Michael R. Burch 

Sometimes we catch them out of the corners of our eyes—
the pale dead.
After they have fled
the gourds of their bodies, like escaping fragrances they rise.
 
Once they have become...

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As I guess into her brown dilated eyes,
Pains radiated and gushed out of her depressed soul.
Discrimination had dwarfed her ambitions like acid rain from the skies,
River of tears escaped my eyes; her right was sold.

Her...

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Here among the ruin’s stones lie histories of chance
Conceived and dreamed but yesterday, a vision viewed askance
Edifice and monument built by egos whim
Just artifacts of interest in history’s mausoleum
These whitened sepulchers of pride record heroic...

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Regret Beneath Sepulchers

The debt of heavy love I bore
To each tear on my corpse;
I reckon so well the salinity
Apart from these deep raindrops

Oh mom!..thou took me here to live
But that bit of love I failed...

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