Long Shredding Poems

Psychologically still thirteen 

Ordinarily meaning pre Internet days
familiarization with me would entail
bringing the avid listener 
into my private mancave hideaways
less a physical place than a juncture in relationship, 
(whereby one or the other of us)...

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Such Tenderness
by Michael R. Burch

for the mothers of Gaza

There was, in your touch, such tenderness—as
only the dove on her mildest day has,
when she shelters downed fledglings beneath a warm wing
and coos to them softly, unable...

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“Tessellate” 

on the surface
it’s easy to see
we tessellate

inadvertent 
decorative ostentatious
flirtatious lives taking risks 

with the other sides
planned strategic functional 
quantity rich quality lacking

Human

our words our ways
opposites 
like magnets attract, it all fits 

we think it...

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Mahmoud Darwish English Translations of Arabic Poems



Palestine
by Mahmoud Darwish
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

This land gives us
all that makes life worthwhile:
April's blushing advances,
the aroma of bread warming at dawn,
a woman haranguing men,
the poetry of Aeschylus,
love's...

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(4.)
As Midnight Hours Call In More Darkened Hosts

Slow flows a river of doubt and regret
foaming its swirling eddies and sad pits
cavernous echoes one can not forget
nor withstand jagged cuts and hardest hits!

As sun retreats and...

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*Image of Hikers Warning by Pixabay.

Out Of The Way

As a self-proclaimed ruler of my person, I am mindful of the internal convictions, external constitutions as Lord overseer of my spotless realm,

Upon my own free will,...

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Though I wrote no book 
attention summoned to look 
at following--->>>

Urgent message – to send Mephistophelian madman back to stone age

predicated upon past and present, I gauge
will offer ogre golden opportunity 
to rewrite anarchistic playbook...

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O' Baobab! O' Baobab! O' Baobab
Ace of the furnace, finest of the dynasty 
You strut your breast high
And ply strain against the yearn, 
Against the fire, the desire for sigh 
Haughty, you stand, before the...

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Systemic racism
is a social/cultural pattern
of racial prejudice
originating within individuals
and their anecdotal experiences
and lack of multiculturally enriching discernment

Shedding light,
and shredding dark,
power analysis,
political and economic,
on patterns of white privileged events
unveils systemic patterns of win/lose empowered privilege
and disempowering...

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|SEVEN MINUTES UNTIL OUR DEMISE

{"Seven minutes left; the insistent buzz in my skull would never abrogate, it preserved on being continuously strenuous. 
My whacks on the veneer of the tiles went unheard of as my...

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Pied tidings of suburbian 
Magpies,
Squawking and squabbling,
Quarreling ferociously among 
Themselves - 
Rush to steal
From off the beleaguered bird 
tables,
To the annoyance of all concerned,
A much begrudged meal;
Before scurrying away into 
Unfrequented woodlands,
Marooned like islands in...

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Extra...extra...Trumpasaurus Extinction...
iz only wishful thinking

Political polls whether advisory still consider 
forty fifth president 
dangerous, hazardous, lymphomatous...
known to wield violent blows,
his delusional perception analogous 
to fable regarding emperor without any clothes
best to handle beast with more'n...

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  I am paying tribute to Joe Bonamasso's song Mind's Eye
with my own inspired lyrics, this song is a jewel and Joe's haunting playing 
on his Gibson guitar is like a light gleaming in...

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I wilt with guilt,
self blame,
too comfortable with living midway
within this United 5%
stealing 28% of Time's encrusted fossil investment
as if by collective right
as if without loss,
no reparations for the other 95%
today
or for the 100% of future...

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There once was a west ham 
Went to Hollywood with a plan 
Thackray was her name 
She loved the American cheese game 
Everything seemed fine 
Sorority House filled with cheap wine 
Doing the nickel and...

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"AOC"

AOC, AOC,sitting on limbs of a dead
green tree,
Shooting innocent cows so merrily!
They must go, this socialist screams!
Deaf to God's creatures painful moos 
and cries,
As their carcasses pile up to the skies.
And their sanguine blood soaking God's 
earth,...

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I awake
  in a thick cropse of trees,
meandering brook splashing nearby,
sunlight stabbing
   through the canopy
in thick rods filled with dust particles.

Cracking my neck
      I rise,
my skin 
...

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It started the 8th of June
moving away from too familiar
into too alien,
finding no sane oasis between.

Vibrant greens relentlessly fade
to wilting monoculturing drought.
Brown patches emerge with dulled loss of inspiration
of what might have been a family
an...

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a ma lingering effect from angst riddled adolescence 
written some years ago, the psycho social mental events
indelible imprint etched psyche ova this pa on a win tree day hence
though a survivor of self starvation i...

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Now that no one can escape
      its time to turn it up a notch,
going over to my other “victim”
           I...

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Eastern Front Anger

The tiled oven exploded smoke and debris was strewn
everywhere in the room which had been untidy
before plasticine animals went up into flames
before authoritarian anger banged and exploded 
before I knew what anger and...

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It's about time we talk of ruins.
So, let us talk, for you never know,
How long ears of hope will remain receptive.

Your lips are missing, and your kisses fall,
Like ripe plums and tint my confession,
Like coffee...

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Only eighteen and conscripted to the military,
no choice of mine it was the norm at this time and scary,
barely out of school and still wet behind the ear,
too young to watch an adult movie or...

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Impossible mission, nonetheless
eschatological, diabolical, critical...
dire straits betokens armageddon.

Come Tuesday, November 3, 2020
mandatory voting obligation to oust
horrible malevolent commander in chief.

Spanish and English writing on border wall
bespeaks impending apocalyptic windfall
weapons of mass destruction concomitant ashfall
brinkmanship ticks...

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“You try to be faithful
And sometimes you're cruel.
You are mine. Then, you leave.
Without you, I can't cope."
Rumi


in the kingdom of love,
nothing is simple,
not even musings,
so tell me:
in your annoyance
do you still think of me
or am...

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