Long Slavers Poems

Sonnets LXI-LXX

Erin
by Michael R. Burch

All that’s left of Ireland is her hair?
bright carrot?and her milkmaid-pallid skin,

her brilliant air of cavalier despair,
her train of children?some conceived in sin,

the others to avoid it. For nowhere
is evidence of...

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Poems about Butterflies and Bees



Flight
by Michael R. Burch

It is the nature of loveliness to vanish
as butterfly wings, batting against nothingness
seek transcendence...



Album
by Michael R. Burch

I caress them—trapped in brittle cellophane—
and I see how young they were,...

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Beckoning
by Michael R. Burch 
 
Yesterday the wind whispered my name
while the blazing locks
of her rampant mane
lay heavy on mine.
And yesterday
I saw the way
the wind caressed tall pines
in forests laced by glinting streams
and thick with...

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(A somnambulistic drama in four acts)

Actors:

Jean-Paul Marat; 
Charles Barbarou;
Charlotte Corday;
1st Philosopher;
2nd Philosopher;
The Commentator’s Voice.

Act 1. A tavern. Two philosopher sit at the table; 
Marat sits at the other, some distance away.

1st Philosopher 

…or even worse:...

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I wanted to write
 The best slavery poem   ever written—
Perhaps win a Pulitzer or Faulkner. 

I had every intention of conforming 
To the standards 
Of modern verse and composition, 
Lyrics fluidly written, 
Perfect...

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competing cousins, interbreeding homo-sapiens
  hominins humming mostly human song
  altruistic generalisers, ever close to dying ways
  opportunistic, never staying long

  self-aware, inquisitive, enlarging brains, empathising
  real representative intelligence
  modelling...

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My dreams became galling
To my fratricidal brothers
My father's favor appalling
Birthed from different mothers

"The master of dreams is coming."
Down the cistern they tossed me
Their plan to kill me numbing
My dreams engulfed in irony

Reuben discouraged their plan
They...

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Wake! and see the extent to which you’re still enslaved
        enslaved by your own kind who hanker after conditioning platitudes
        the...

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New sedan tracked into the wet puddle on the sharp bend
Grasping for breath the engine choked to die splattering
Wheels crunched jerking to stop by the grassy pavement 
Hitting the ignition time and again to revive...

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Did your mother ever tell you,
Did you know?
(Some of us have a penchant for the inscrutable)
Did, your mother ever tell you
(These bonds are primordial and immutable)
In one of those intimate conversations
Between mother and child
(Mostly wasted...

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You hear it said a lot these days,
“Reparations! Someone must pay!
Our ancestors suffered, it’s true!
For that we’ve come to take from you!”
Now we could just point out the fact
none of us were alive that far...

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Nothing is running on time anymore,
everything seems to be leaving late
And arriving even later too
What’s wrong with the grandfather clock,
working quirky is the quartz LED watch
Digital punctuality is ten nanoseconds off ...
losing time at this...

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Maybe you have got to thinking
I probably should read more books,
but there’s just so much crap out there,
is anything really worth a look?
Is there anything worth my time,
something that will not disappoint,
something that strives to...

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Prince of this world,
you've meddled in the affairs of mankind
since the beginning
From the time of the Egyptian pharaohs,
whose gigantic pyramidal tombs
had been built primarily by slave labor
A living testament to man's ingenuity and cruelty
Then you...

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I saw a man the other day
while I was watching my TV,
he angrily proclaimed we should,
“Apologize for slavery!”
Now this struck me as quite bizarre,
for we did this long, long ago,
we fought a war to kill...

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Goose and purple i saw it strung up in a window in chicago
I saw factories written in your eyelashes and hair and industrialization vomited 
Limp and edible bruised and calling
Geese sing every morning and they...

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I heard it from the internet,
we’re now living in a new age,
and all twinges of racism
and oppression should go away.
We have to change our sports team names,
we have to tear down the statues,
let’s target the...

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At one time eight different Native America Indian Tribes lived in peace,
In the state of Kansas, sharing buffalo, shared lands with no lease.
The Iowa, Chippewa, Delaware, Kansas, Osage, Pawnee and Kickapoo,
Shared venison, and fresh cool...

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So you’re all probably thinking
that these winter months sure are dull,
and I bet that you are wishing
from something to break the lull.
What if I were to tell you
that it all can end right now,
that there’s...

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A friend asked this simple?? question,
which provoked this universal answer session.

Why wake and get out of bed each morn?
My goddess!!  I adore each fresh dawn.

For starters - there's life,
each day a chance to lessen...

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This debt crisis they postpone
And due dates will vary
It may come with no warning
Stalking the unwary

"Ban hate!", "Ban hate!", they holler
Their war is not with sin
God's Word is the enemy
The truth they have to spin

They...

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Written By:  D. Collins 2/26/24


When I hear "a country of immigrants" I wince in pain.
Because one ethnic group traveled here in chains.
They didn't walk across the border seeking a better life.
They were snatched from...

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The apostles of decadence claim that the divine spark demands lust, power and material goods.
 Why pay attention to these puppets enlightened by the dogmatic obscurantism of the West?
 Our heavenly portion seeks elevation and...

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Defining chromium weep and cold-steel whine, 
This endless tragedy that is love, 
Tripping a corsage of candy entrails and dust-cake,
Streamers across the floors of emotional residency.

So she reposes, pretty with poise, her porcelain chin
Resting on...

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Keepsakes
by Michael R. Burch

"... put out my hand and touched the face ..."

I caress them—trapped in yellowing cellophane—
and I see how young they were, and how unwise;
and I remember their first flight—an old prop plane,
their...

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