Long Sinks Poems

Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace,
you climb, skittish kite...

What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there,
so that all that remains is to
fall?

Only a...

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The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

Nineteen sixty-eight confirmed the year
Of discovery by ‘Humble Oil’
To North America’s largest oil field,
On the North Slope of the Brooks Range;
A west to east Northern Alaskan mountain chain.
An area forty miles wide...

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Once upon a time there was a heartless man, he didn’t care for others and compassion he couldn’t understand
His heart was cold there was no love inside, although to the outside world he carried on...

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I guess I’m sorry I was leaving so soon
It came out of the blue,
It came out of the blue moon…blue moon…
I couldn’t find my left shoe

I could have been here 
For a little while, while,...

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Sometimes I have the courage to think of the things that made me what I am today,
My memory takes me back to terrible things far away far off into my bitter past,
My mind like a...

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It is so hard to let go of love,
lovingly.

It sharks, 
unpeels more gut more quickly
than reel or reeler ever lost
in all those years of lazy inches
in and out:
casting,
winding in and playing out,
hardly fishing, rarely catching
anything
from...

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There is a world of difference
between schism and jism,
but they both end up the same.

Just as patriarchal Roman Catholicism
overpowers living and breathing Christianity,
so too does Capitalism
overpower cooperative capital co-investment,
so too does autocratic rationalism
overpower syncretic enculturing...

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"Ground Level Entry"

“She fits the bill”,
they say it 
insouciantly

visions of being 
carried in the beak 
of a bilious pelican 

where it builds
its rudimentary nest, 
it uses sticks and debris

no stones, yet,
from irreverence
thrown at it

no higher...

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The inky black water sucks her in further
As she descends into the black depths of the abyss
Cloying dark swirls cover her head as soundlessly it reaches
Possessing her every inhalation – exhalation - it envelopes her...

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Endless sunflower field 
Rhythmically swaying in the wind
Like lazy ocean wave stretches 
To the distant line of horizon
Touching the edge of the sky
Melting into hot noon brilliance
Boiling all shades of yellow into
One burning brightness of...

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Coping with Agoraphobia well you are basically pent up 
in your home for me it finally took it's toil my therapist 
came to my home because I was basically limited spending 
hours in a room...

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Here we are fans this fine summer day,
to watch Trash Can Cats, versus Downtown Stray.
The field is grand in this deep wooded glen,
pitchers are warming up in the bull pen.

Pitching for the Cats is Crazy...

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Cascading off the winter chill
leaving warmth wherever it traces
the edge of the daffodil, tulip or crocus
spring shines its brilliant rays across
the windowpane that mirrors the friendly praise
coloring the seals with such sweet appeal 

lavender lilacs...

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I 

See the phone towers with the lights- 
Glowing lights! 
What a world of mischief and sorrow their pattern foretells! 
How they twinkle, twinkle, twinkle
In the icy air of night! 
While the clouds that are...

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The Lay of The Best Man - Part One

I’ve seen men ‘good’, and surely, I’ve seen men ‘bad’
So jealous and so envious, I’ve seen men ….sad
Twisted, fuming with anger, and consumed with rage
Callous and cruel...

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Thump-thump of stiffening fish contorting
   In the bilge beneath the gunwale; 
 Lidless, bulging, reddened eyes, swivelling upwards, 
Protruding horribly from the straining sockets,
    Express stupefied amazement at inconceivable 
...

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Who suggests a trip back...rides to this bit of nostalgia in the middle years of the Great Depression aboard a Chicago elevated train, "the El." We hurdle head-long above asphalt blanketed streets that are determined...

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Harry Horsman's treatment was withdrawn over a week ago and they are making him comfortable, he is now in Hospice care.

Susan Ashly…we can only hope that Hospice care can keep Harry comfortable. May comfort be...

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Sad feelings always return,
No matter what I do,
Say or think,
No matter what I don’t do,
Say or think.

Leaving me sometimes,
Sadness disappears,
Just long enough, 
To tease me,
To please me,
To freeze me.

Hope sinks in,
Hope settles down,
Hope hopes for...

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The Snowflake That Sank The Titanic

It all begins with a single snowflake
(Each one in itself is unique)
Brought about through evaporation,
And returned by the force of gravity
In the form of snow to the planet,
To rest on...

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They say...

Still waters run deep...
Then why are there so many shallow people?

When it rains it pours...
Usually the day after I wash my truck.

Walk softly and carry a big stick...
Or walk hard and carry a small...

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There is a water glint,
just shining through the copse beyond.
Autumn's sinking sun, 
barred by spindle trees and the last 
of summer's brindled reeds 
and sedge and rush that fringe this stilling pond.
.
 
Damp leaves hide...

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I have seen the fireflies two nights in succession
wandering restlessly in the dark
hundreds of them blinking evocative lights
symbolizes the souls of warriors whose blood 
have drenched  the desiccated earth for a cause 
they believe...

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My 1st round:

I know we just met and you seem like you're cool but there's a whole bunch of s**t that I don't know about you. Now I don't care about your race, what kind...

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Cascading off the winter chill
leaving warmth wherever it traces
the edge of the daffodil, tulip or crocus
spring shines its brilliant rays across
the windowpane that mirrors the friendly praise
coloring the seals with such sweet appeal 

lavender lilacs...

Read More