Long Sere Poems

A Stolen Memory
A Mirthful Chorus
By Sy Roth 


We surrounded him 
Asked to let go.
She stared at the misshapen face,
Unshaven sandpapery skin 
Eyelids a tabula rasa
Fluttery sere skin
And we could see the humor blossoming in his...

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With summer nearly gone, we all wanted to do something special,
And decided it should be daring, rather than the usual and dull.

So, we listed the things we desired to do, but hadn't yet tried,
And we...

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the sky erupts monsters
sky erupts monsters forming
erupts monsters forming wreaking
monsters forming wreaking havoc
forming wreaking havoc shattering
wreaking havoc shattering serenity
havoc shattering serenity bolts
shattering serenity bolts of
serenity bolts of hell
bolts of hell deluge
of hell deluge descending
hell deluge...

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That soft-spoken Sovereign commands a big stick, 
runs the world into ruins, once our bailiwick.
If asked why, He grins grimly, pale lips slightly pursed:
"Vindication? Straightforward: It's Me and Me First" 

(To mesmerise people He needed...

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I was a zealous meteorologist, which I had been for a long time,
As the roving years work diligently, to create a very fine wine.

So content in my fond vocation, many deemed me tops in my...

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“The Autumn is old; The sere leaves are flying; He hath gathered up gold, And now he is dying…Old age, begin sighing.”- Thomas Hood


In the amber hues, kissed by scarlet
Soothing whispers in laughing hearts,
Music, trembling...

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Ready...Aim...Fire!

In light of tension twixt
brinkmanship rumbling one
East Asian Tiger
country otherwise known as
"the land of morning calm,"
yours truly t'will invite 
"freedom foo fighters"
tubby regaling with a jubilant aire
total mortal Kombat 
levels threat of human warhead
bomb dubbed...

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French poems by Charles d’Orleans in modern English translations by Michael R. Burch



Traitorous Eye
by Charles d’Orleans
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Traitorous eye, what’s new?
What lewd pranks do you have in view?
Without civil warning, you spy,
And...

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I.
When Sal rode slowly into Victorville,
he saw an empty street, buildings unfilled,
Sol half-expected this, it’s why he was here,
but even to him, it always looked weird.

The letter they wrote had been clear on the cause:
Vampires,...

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Flings and wings and rings rejected…
 Cupid’s arrows fly deflected…
“It clearly is too late” she signed, “to love, adore or pay me mind”

Penciled lines drew cruel conclusions
mocking mirror’s cracked illusions…
Sometimes, in time, I hang awhile,...

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Ah...herewith ma usual
     dose of pablum from this meal
lee mouthed muttering 
     doggerel wordsmith,
     who now writes...
     so here's...

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I.
It was in 1554
that young Liesel watched her little nice die,
a fever had swept through Bavaria,
and from her tiny frame all life did fly.

She wasn’t the first, many died that year,
but at the funeral for...

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...He looked around frantic as he struggled to breath.
“It’s all happening at once, I just can’t believe…
I know that they are all waiting, will want to record,
but right now it doesn’t seem so simple any...

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Poems about Flight, Flying, and Birds (III)



Songstress
by Michael R. Burch

Within its starkwhite ribcage, how the heart
must flutter wildly, O, and always sing
against the pressing darkness: all it knows
until at last it feels the numbing sting
of...

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The Mystery Of Girls.

When I was just a nipper
And I was very small
I didn’t really like girls
At all

I found most were very spiteful
And when at primary school
No one wanted to kiss me
When we played in...

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Grasp my hand, and your heart shall trail,
Autumn drapes her scarf of flame o'er the trees sublime.
Beneath our canopy of stars, we shall render each tale,
In the hue of love, forever and for always, beyond...

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Although I hardly gave it a thought
I didn't really doubt
our miniature juniper, a bonsai,
would survive our desert vacation.
                 ...

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I cradle and rock him,
He's so fragile a thing in my arms,
So perfect, so innocent,
So unlike his mother.
His mother was broken and wicked,
A being rotten from within,
But I had loved her still.
It was foolish, I...

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Total estimated casualties, including civilians and Taliban 171,000 to 174,000 all in the cause of a very dubious war, returning Afghanistan to what it was 20 years before, and abandoning some of those  who...

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Whose heart-strings are a lute
embalmed in their echoing songs! 
When Nature sleeps and stars are mute
at midnight, in the month of June.
A mystery, and a dream,
perchance is woven in thy sleep;
for the moon never beams...

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Nunca antes le daras cavida
Entre manos el oro se hace sal y agua
Mientras una luna de bendiciones
Amanece el ser de maldicion
Quemando los poros de nuestras virtudes
Sera el final en llamas?
Que sera de nuestra proxima generacion...

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Para Mi Familia Y Amistades

Si ustedes estan aqui sentados, escuchando estas Palabras
es porque yo ya no soy de este mundo. Yo todavia estoy aqui
pero ustedes no me pueden ver. A ustedes mis hijos - quiero
decirles...

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Rest thyself weary traveler, enter into my welcoming gate.
Tarry a while, may thy wearisome burdens time abrogate.
Sit with me, tell me of thy arduous and itinerant bourne,
And of the many roads thy feet have trod,...

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A lone cottonwood tree stands on the rolling Colorado plain.
A rippling stream flows nearby, its existence to sustain.
Its lofty branches reach for the pristine Colorado sky.
Tho' badly scarred, the ravages of time it continues to...

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Harsh sunlight beats upon the thirsty land
And glares upon the limestone cliffs and sand,
   While waves of heat rise shimmering, above
The parched loam where the great saguaros stand.

And perched up high among the...

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