Long Shotguns Poems

The Tender Weight of Her Sighs
by Michael R. Burch

The tender weight of her sighs
lies heavily upon my heart;
apart from her, full of doubt,
without her presence to revolve around,
found wanting direction or course,
cursed with the thought...

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Turkish Poetry Translations I



Ben Sana Mecburum: "You are indispensable"
by Attila Ilhan
translation by Nurgul Yayman and Michael R. Burch

You are indispensable; how can you not know
that you're like nails riveting my brain? 
I see your eyes...

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[My recent poem ‘The Dimly Lit House’ received a
Comment from Charles Messina that it could be a Tom and 
Jerry episode… what can I say? Something went ‘Ping!’]

       ...

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They crept upon our shores eating away the inner core
They crept upon our shore knocking on our barricade doors
Tall stout men with peevish eyes and strange looks on their white faces
Invade our quarters looking for...

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"Buddy Breathing" 

Ten leagues below
the bed of the ocean in my heart,
strange creatures exist,
they guard the gate 
of all things that 
have past 

the sound of their existence 
is strange music for strange creatures,
words are...

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I dress the way I do on stage
To transport you to another age
Where wild women of the west
Proved they stood among the best
They rode boot to boot along side the men
Riding broncs to hell &...

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O.K.K.K.
Sit down and allow me to tell you a story
but first let's all take an inventory
we've got the K.K.K. riding around with shotguns and a black target or two
we 've got the Mafia running almost...

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O.K.K.K.
Sit down and allow me to tell you a story
but first let's all take an inventory
we've got the K.K.K. riding around with shotguns and a black target or two
we 've got the Mafia running almost...

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(Read later stanzas for more of the humour part ; parody of politics)

I Can't think well of a democracy
if nepotism and false promises
are part and parcel of its idiosyncrasy
A system of governance can't appeal to...

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I'd give you the shirt off my back
But only because I'd need you to like me
The eyesore that is your beat up honda in the driveway 
I said I would call but I can see...

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Let’s take a ride, how about traveling, to outer space, 
Just accept anything’s possible, it’s our cosmic chase,
Moving faster than light speed, in the blink of an eye,
Unleash your imagination, laws of physics, don’t apply,

Maybe...

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My prankster, older son, came home from college, just the other day.
He saw such great possibilities, in how, he, with the Trolls, could play.
Now, you must remember, my son, has always been, a tad bit...

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Berms rise high to the left and right,
they’ve created a wide gully,
another berm squares off the back,
so no stray rounds ever get free.

There’s a metal spinner back there,
sits just short of two hundred yards,
I squeeze...

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The old, the new barely meet on the street of Bardstown road, yet diversity so unique, from Cherokee to the rarity, stepping forth in time with the antique structures surrounding you, from magnetic tape recordings...

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Staring down the wolves
With a shotgun in each hand
My back against a wall
Of some barren land.

Though tides of Evil course
Through my blood filled veins
 'S no hiding or remorse
Until those beasts are slain.

The winds of...

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A haze… 
Languorous oft in summer days 
Where sundrops drip 
From melting skies 
Onto city grind 
And parasols shade the cobbled grays

Across back alley lanes 
Trains and trolleys tip toe by 
As a fool in...

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The stranger left town but 
return a fortnight with six 
more men armed with guns 
and blades,
They came face to face with 
the townfolks bearing 
choppers and chains,
And in their midst was 
Morgan and his...

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I was sittin' on the porch today reminiscin' about this and that,
And my hometown came to mind where I grew up as a feckless brat!
Life was lived at a slower pace it seemed, back in...

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Students came out by the hundreds of thousands to march for their lives
gathered together as brothers and sisters, their voice clear; enough is enough!
No longer silent, they spoke for dead friends and all victims of...

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A Cowboy is lean, tall, muscled and an inarticulate mass
Of loyalty, independence, pride and downright Western class
He cocks his hat to the back of his head and lets loose an infectious grin
Testosterone overflowing he’s masculine...

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Somebody special just rode into Northfield,
Somebody famous and bold,
Long linen dusters concealing their pistols,
They’ve come to steal all our gold.

James boys and Youngers, they’re up from Missouri,
Riding so slow into town,
Mighty warm welcome in South...

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January twenty first, 2024 the above thugs burst.'
Into a shop in Wallsal town, two with axes smashing
Windows to the ground' then six of them stormed into this
Store, a multicultural vist.? I will add no more.'...

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(Google cecil lion murder)
Some satanic soul committed awful regicide
Of Cecil, prided King of the Jungle
And that has left behind his bereaved pride
And his offspring in bloody danger
For Cecil the royal majesty of the Game reserve
Has...

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He speaks for the uprooted.
A man of sorts, a twiggy Buddha.
He who interprets
the conferences of frogs,
the unpublished works
of kestrels and voles.

He’s an advocate for the underbelly
of a microbial heaven, for every kind
of uncouth animalcule.

Ancient is...

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He speaks for the uprooted.
A man of sorts, a twiggy Buddha.
He who interprets
the conferences of frogs,
the unpublished works
of kestrels and voles.

He’s an advocate for the underbelly
of a microbial heaven, for every kind
of uncouth animalcule.

Ancient is...

Read More