Long Shrieked Poems

Where Does the Butterfly Go?
by Michael R. Burch

for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba

Where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails,
when thunder howls,
when hailstones scream,
when winter scowls,
when nights compound dark frosts with snow ...
Where...

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Various Heresies 5

Tonight, Let's Remember
by Michael R. Burch

July 7,2007 (7-7-7)

Tonight, let's remember the fond ways
our fingers engendered new methods to praise
the gray at my temples, your thinning hair.
Tonight, let's remember, and let us draw near...

Tonight,...

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Sonnets LXXI-LXXX

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly, in despair.

Because you...

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( A university-life vignette)

It’s Saturday morning. Lisa, Leong and I were in the common area, lazing about. “This is what happened to us (Lisa and I) last night.” I said, beginning to explain last night's...

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  Another Cruel Link in their Chain 

1.   Beginnings

Her babe was her joy, such a beautiful boy,
	and he suckled her breast till the end.
The slaver sought cash, bestowed mammy a thrash,
	sold her...

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.                          NOW

Well, GI Jack is welcome back, he left his...

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On the night before Christmas, alone in my house, 
Sorrow gnawed at my soul, like a ravenous mouse.
Entombed in my blankets, I struggled to sleep,
Ready to snap if I counted more sheep.

I rose at the...

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The day was fine and sunlit,
Decorated by several clouds 
drifting aimlessly in the radiant ocean-blue sky.
Chorused by gentle puffs of the morning breeze,
Sending leaves on the streets twirling like
ballerinas in a dazzling and mesmerising dance.
and...

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The day was fine and sunlit, Decorated by several clouds drifting 
     aimlessly in the radiant ocean-blue sky. Chorused by gentle 
         ...

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Date:  April  4,  2051

Dolly had Molly and Holly delayed
In the dinning area while she secured 
Any loose ends. They had most of
The assemblages in place. The aisle
The flowers? Delilah had questions 
"Mommy...

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The bright sunrise made the snow-covered Alp mountain-tips, an hour-away-by-car, glow like they were topped with lemon ice-cream. Was this evidence of magic?

Peter (my bf) and I are low atop the five story Hotel de...

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A whirl, a gust, and a thunderous boom commenced,
Heartened by the latter soreness of silent night,
Shackled through the chill blows above,
A tempest, a storm,
Threshing the world,
Shaking the Prison of Plot,

The waters of the Holy Spirit...

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Once upon a time,
in a Kansas City Public School,
There was a teacher named Builda.
We are all given the same rules.
Every year, the principal says,
"The first two weeks of school are
not for teaching any academics.
The first...

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This was the explicit exploration 
Exasperation Continuation.
Molly laid across the bed with a 
Pair of lacey underwear. Damian 
Adored the exhibition. Her subtle
Sensuous submission. He reached
For her hips as she slid beneath the
Sheets he removed...

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(There’s a song for this: ‘Confessions’ by Sudan Archives)

I remember it like it was yesterday (it was yesterday).

I arrived on a cool (42°f), blindingly sunny New Haven afternoon. It was as if they’d opened up...

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I was forever losing things, and my laughing friends called me a klutz,
Like darker skies misplace buttery sun, when a severe storm develops.

I had once lost the keys to my house, and waited locked out...

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T Salamander enjoyed local fame
down by the creek, there with her daughter.
Prided herself on her inky black frame,
bathing each day in the cool, brackish water.
She set amphibious cold-blooded hearts
on fire, exploding, through black magic arts.
All...

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THREE WITCHES A LOVE SONNET


Three ancient, rotten, horrid, witches 
just awoke from their daytime snore,
These evil, reeking, damaged, sisters,
Cursed the land for thirty-five score.

As they hobbled down stairs 
they stammered and coughed,
Till they reached the...

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and my CNN opened on a breaking news on a dark street in Libya, about Nigerians chained to be sold as slaves.
the television slide and roved over,
their tears shattered and their blood spoke of pains...

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Edna Morris lived in the town of Shadow Fells, in rich green, hilly country,
With doting parents and sister Violet, plucking fruit from their plum tree.

Pretty Edna was twelve years old, but she and Violet played...

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Glen Campbell – A Special Person
      It was September 4th, 1968 and I threw an empty suitcase into the trunk of my car, telling Joan, my daughter, that I might...

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When I was little, my stepfather and I would be outside, coloring the driveway with chalk or throwing a frisbee and he’d stop and say, “I’m gonna go stir your mama up.”

He’d go in the...

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Three wholesome troubling years before, a thousand cursed days back
    I lay, most stiff within my bed, my house of death did reek
And all my nightmares, all my slumbers, they were deep...

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It was a freezing night in Alaska, the temperature had 
dropped to well below zero, fifteen below with a driving 
wind that shrieked and laughed as it sped viciously past
causing lashing snow flakes to fall...

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A morning spent with nurses.
A sharp pain in my side, like a spear being plunged
In my right side when I laughed, sat up or sat down.
Pain in my eyes, and my stomach.
Sharp, mean, angry pain.
I...

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