Long Slogged Poems

Wonderland
by Michael R. Burch
 
We stood, kids of the Lamb, to put to test
the beatific anthems of the blessed,
the sentence of the martyr, and the pen’s
sincere religion. Magnified, the lens
shot back absurd reflections of each...

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Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers I

I translated the first six Native American poems for my father when he chose to enter hospice and end his life by not taking dialysis …


Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I
loose translation/interpretation...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems VIII

These are early poems of mine, written in my teens as a high school and college student. 

Moon Lake
by Michael R. Burch

Starlit recorder of summer nights,
what magic spell bewitches you?
They say that...

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That soft-spoken Sovereign commands a big stick, 
runs the world into ruins, once our bailiwick.
If asked why, He grins grimly, pale lips slightly pursed:
"Vindication? Straightforward: It's Me and Me First" 

(To mesmerise people He needed...

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drove for thirty minutes to the subway station, took a train for forty minutes, got into another for only ten minutes, and reached Queen's Park. Mornings are so hectic, people are rushing to their work-places....

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They walked...and they walked! 
             prolonged stretches of a disastrous journey -  
           ...

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Drove for thirty minutes to Subway Station, 
Took a train for forty minutes, 
Got into another for only ten minutes, 
reached Queen's Park.

Mornings are hectic, 
found a seat beside the window, 
looked at all the...

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Through the fetid swamp we slogged
We sat and rested on a log
 Where are we?  Mr. Harbid said
On a log in Sorrel Swamp, just you and me and Ed
All along the road I thought
Wrong...

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As I look, the world moves so oddly
 home feeling like a story
and there's no tourniquet for my heart
 
No, it's open,
breathing air like lungs
a deep hole, a night slogged by weary eyes
under a sickly...

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Have you ever heard the birds?
Composing music on the trees
Or listened to the rains
In a cold evening with breeze. 
Time is short,
Don’t run so fast,
Life is not going to last.

Have you told your parents?
That you...

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Drove for thirty minutes to Subway Station, 
Took a train for forty minutes, 
Got into another for only ten minutes, 
reached Queen's Park.
Mornings are hectic, 
found a seat beside the window, 
looked at all the...

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My emotions tease me at their will,
Plunder my hapless intellectual world
And declare a bloodless coup d’état.
This undeclared war shocks my core,
Grips me with a freakish fear
And forces me to plunge deep within,
To rein in my...

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Born from slaved backbones of our forefathers and mothers
We have risen, Liberated, freed from encroachment
Apprised through noble heritage, an abundance of history
Mother Africa gave birth, infused life, 
rocked the Cradle to all humanity.
Kidnapped for trade...

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I went to war in Vietnam which wasn't my idea
the army never asked for my advice
I slogged on through the jungles there and watched some soldiers die
out country where the farmers grow their rice

The months...

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ake me back to the 80s,
with top gun all the rage.
with me VHS and Betamax,
and Ceefax holiday page. 

Keith had is hand up Orville,
the Rubix cube was fun.
Samantha had her baps out,
on the third page...

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"Edith!  Edith!   I didn't find a Twinkie in my lunch bucket today!
What happened, Dingbat?   Why do you torture me this way?"
"But Archie, ain't you seen on TV they ain't makin'...

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Sanctuary at Dawn
by Michael R. Burch

I have walked these thirteen miles
just to stand outside your door.
The rain has dogged my footsteps
for thirteen miles, for thirty years,
through the monsoon seasons ...
and now my tears
have all been...

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One fine day, when it was too hot
best to sit before a cooler I thought

to sit idle is not my cup of tea
I picked a magazine to see

one recipe just held my attention
let me cook...

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three connected by blood
three fated to strive
three to stem the flood
three, of whom one must die

together they stood and answer'd the call
as one they stood, to country's cry
in mind as one man tall
in history, to...

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William Lewis woke up one day to see 
a jungle, frightening and dark,
not knowing how he had arrived there
or which way he should embark.

He heard the stirrings of strange creatures
in every cranny and nook. 
There...

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This poison tasted like wine enough to kill my conscious  

This fields of medicine I drank myself out of this situation of in-laws my mother zonked herself to be part of 
My poison was...

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On a walk after the worst of the Sandy storm
I slogged down the still dampening
Green grass valley rutted between
The moldering fences of the shadowed alley. 
 
Under the low, ominously rushing, soggy gray clouds
I saw...

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Come April
There's lots to catch
Spring is fading out
Flowers are wilting
No new flowers on their way
But before sunrise
Step into a field
Stretches of golden fields
Will greet you dancing in the breeze
Wheat stands tall
All ready to be harvested
Farmers...

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"Walk!", cried the jimply from his perch
above the fruited plain.
With fiery lanterns they did search
o'er the vast terrain.

They trudged all day and trudged all night
until each got a small blister.
Oh, how I recoil at their...

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I argued with my AI toaster yesterday morning over the proper use of the bagel button. It wouldn't stop arguing even after I repeatedly insisted, "Poindexter, stop!" I temporarily remedied the situation by leaving the...

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