Long Sheared Poems

Juvenilia: Early Poems by Michael R. Burch

In the Whispering Night
by Michael R. Burch

In the whispering night, when the stars bend low
till the hills ignite to a shining flame,
when a shower of meteors streaks the sky
while...

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“He fought often and once bled in the cause of freedom, but his habits of War did not lessen in him the peaceful virtues which adorn his private life.”  Doctor Benjamin Rush, signer of...

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In the beginning after God had finished creating this land.    
Satan boldly challenged the heavens for the absolute control of man.
Gods’ architectural blueprint stretched for ages across the sky 
He watered the...

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One generic baby boomer, (a garden variety sexagenarian)...
offers his interpretation of critical race theory

I, (an articulate, charming, domesticated, 
erudite, friendly, genteel, humorous, intelligent,
kind, learned, male, albeit modest – married) 
with freshly clipped formerly gnarly toenails
discounts...

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Various Heresies 11



The beauty of the flower fades,
its petals wither to charades...
—Michael R. Burch



the U-turn poem
by michael r. burch

Life so defaulty,
Life so unfair,
why do wee prize U,
what do U care?

LORD who lets unborns
drown in a...

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Alone these thoughts like annoying buzz,
zealously trample across minds agenda,
beguile what plans I had planned to play.
Yearning for release from ancient scab,
can I not sheath their crashing climax?
Xenon prayers list low and anaemic,
downtrodden by shoe-tied...

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Sinister glacial dissolution 
verging on huge jagged icebergs reverberate
nature mocking bird song sans bot mot, 
braggadocio, rodomontade, et cetera
distinct, ear splitting, 
and fractal heaving snap, crackle and pop, 
cacophonously fabulous, incredulously humongous, 
and thunderously voluminous...

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Earlier today April 4th, 2022,
which supersedes bald faced headlines 
pointing finger and 
Putin blame for Bucha killings
squarely on head & shoulders
of Russian autocrat, née
yours truly lathered 
his hirsute higglety-pigglety 
thinning oily tresses. 

Hark….the herald angels...

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I awoke in a place where I never had been,
where all my life’s years seemed no help to me.
I felt that the stem of my mind had been sheared
as I sunk way down deep into...

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Now With Increasing Darkness O'erhead

Bleating at the rain, the despondent sheep
Their days and nights aching in blinded sleep;
Til masters, their dominated lives take
With true evil, which they never forsake,
For greed and lust demands taking it...

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January 24th, 2023 Hair washing heralds huge happening

Hark….the herald angels sing, and twitter 
for mass communication 
mediums stop the presses 
when I, a regular schlemiel 
take shampoo to mine matted mass mop 
(no less than...

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My dear brother Butch,

Hair are the highlights of my week:
I got a job at the Hairway to Heaven salon!
Our motto: "We color your hair or dye trying"
When the interviewer said "I mustache you a question..."
I...

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Wonder’s Darkness
             by Odin Roark

He knew wonder well
It could cancel fear
And bestow courage
A nexus for survival

A predawn beginning
His solo-climb of the face
Thought crazy...

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"Laid Upon Their Alters" 

qhapaq hucha 
it begins at birth
the most precious 
resource of all

we are registered,
audited, one by one
under the rod measured
by lizard rule 

the capacocha 
children of complacency
dumbed down, some
thorns, uppity, removed

heads counted...

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Byword People (Came By Way)



Pitch black was the day after
the nightmare before
When the blue wails
washed upon the sunset shore
Dark journey’s end for the castoff children,
who were unspoken for

Idol eyes resting carelessly,
got sin windswept upon a...

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For P.D's "Going Haiku Crazy" Contest

 
How Many?

going to St. Ives
met folks on that smelly bus
more than I could count

Just Sleep Walking?

Wee Willy Winky
caught outside a boy’s window
in a night garment

Got Wool?

naked in the lane
three...

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Hate, hate is a strong word and so is love
Love comes and goes but true love leaves within 
I am scared to hate but can't help the way I feel
Because hate is something that comes...

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The ammunition greased casings pepper skull and cross lovely bones, 
   lightening speedily deals mortal blow persons unaware,
   the final minutes/seconds of lives leased
shorn of existence, and akin to sheared sheep,...

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Along the mountain pine valley did the Iron Horse roar,
A steam belching black demon, burning red hot coals
Within it's steel belly.
Speed's hell bound creation, driven by greed's insatiable hunger,
Faster, faster it moves at acceleration rush,...

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Ronald was a tough old ram, the biggest of his breed
Daniel was a clipperman, renowned of shearing deed
Many sheep were sheared that day and woolless they had fled
Before those two met in affray and battled...

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Behold the harbinger of your ascendance,
A messenger of perfection, I commence.
Attacks are pointless, shortsighted, and weak.
I hold the power to bear you face defeat.

Oh harbinger, foretelling of your rise,
A beacon shining in the darkest skies
Perfection...

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Miss Muffet sat upon a velvet stool
I know 'twas a tuffet; learned that in school
But Muffy was the tart
Who broke the spider's heart
I'm telling the story, so shut up, fool!

Humpty Dumpty had no wisdom at...

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You can feel them move through streets
Emblazoned with sirens' primary colors,
A swatch of fjord's colonial flagship hues
Left to slap in the wind of reorderd forms
Until sheared into confetti strips. Scripts 
Writ into a code are...

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They sheared and washed until they uncovered clean rosy skin

‘That’s more like it now we don’t have to cope with the ultimate sin’

Being different was not acceptable but now the sheep shivered

And the flock had...

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In flash points crackling moment of the exhausted,
Ecstasy’s burnt embers explode, colliding in
Raptures afterglow of passions flaming heart.
Castaway's silhouettes blaze, against a heated back drop,
Of sensuality sizzling, at a boiling temperature left
 Uncontrolled, the union...

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