Long Snuff Poems

Within


Play Slipknot’s ‘Snuff’ song four times and use these lyrics:
(Do not use the official video clip. It has more than just the song.)


I still feel your pain within my skin…


Ripping out my heart again,
So I...

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“SUMMER”



Where 
has Summer 
gone?

The world 
has lost 
Summer

Sweet 
little 
dream

missing 

all those other 
beautiful  
small dreams 

seen as toys
small and 
inconsequential 

casually tossed aside, 
disposable play,
things

pure shining lights
smiling eyes once so bright, 
switched off,

'neath...

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Heat Lightening
by Michael R. Burch

Each night beneath the elms, we never knew
which lights beyond dark hills might stall, advance,
then lurch into strange headbeams tilted up
like searchlights seeking contact in the distance . . .

Quiescent unions...

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The pencil now resting the image was 'testing' for the creature before him, (his badly-drawn drawin') had come out 'not right' somewhat twisted and tight.

The picture in question, it burst with suggestion, for lines that...

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Because the charity of my native place
Obliged me, the broken branches I the picked up
Them giving back him, who was to debase.

Then we finally reached where had to leap
From the second turn to third, and...

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POEMS ABOUT EROS AND CUPID

These are translations of ancient Greek poems about Eros. Eros was the Greek counterpart of the Roman god Cupid. While today we tend to think of Cupid as an angelic cherub...

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Preparations for 'Luau' (LOU-ow) or a Hawaiian Party-like event, for a church Luau, would be a 'Ho'ike' (hoe-'E-kay). The hunters will tie the hind legs of whatever animal will go into an 'i'mu' (E'-moo), which...

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Written in summer of 1976.


I used to eat my lunch with groups
of businessmen from Campbell Soups.

We drank a drink at lunch each day
Of Coca-Cola mixed with hay

And talked of pending corporate plans
And willow-haired orangutans.

I spent...

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Reversals of Fortune
I. Most think luck’s just what happens, though love groks luck’s seized
by each seed that sticks (somehow) in less stone-filled ground
(which its siblings blow off or press past). That’s less luck
to my brain...

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The Sheriff, not a pleasant sort 
Was learning of a bad report
About a soul, Who stood defiant
And swore an oath, to topple tyrants

Who once was noble, but now has strayed 
Hell bend upon his rebels...

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One generic baby boomer, (a garden variety sexagenarian)...
offers his interpretation of critical race theory

I, (an articulate, charming, domesticated, 
erudite, friendly, genteel, humorous, intelligent,
kind, learned, male, albeit modest – married) 
with freshly clipped formerly gnarly toenails
discounts...

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“What concerns you,” he asked?
     “This one looks much like his kin, has he inherited other aspects of his father as well?”
     “Do you mean magic?”
The guard...

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UP IN SMOKE...

Tobacco companies you should be ashamed of your yourselves
pushing your nasty CANCER sticks
what a bunch of money hungry low lives and self centered PRICKS
GET out of my life forever hit the bricks!
I SEE...

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the Universe, a self-defining everything
  but then, what of the Cosmos wherein we all dwell?
  that big bang blast, forever on a far-flung fling
  from beyond and within which, lurks heaven and...

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I grew up in Poortown 
A mile down the road 
From hard topped streets 
Where Miss Eleanor lived 
She sat on the front porch 
Smoking ready rolled 
Eating brought on peaches 
And she would hide...

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Strange this all falls on deaf ears 
a mockery of justice twist whichever way you wish 
people killed in a hospital act of terror yes or no 

Where those blind cannot ever see 
the gospel...

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NDIDI (PATIENCE IS GOLDEN)

Patience said:
"Whatever my old man says."
So,
I saw the wise, bald, old man
In his thatched mud hut
Loin cloth knotted 
Around his shoulders 
The whiff of utaba (snuff)
Saturating the atmosphere

He googled me
Between the rims...

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Preposterous Eros
by Michael R. Burch

“Preposterous Eros” – Patricia Falanga

Preposterous Eros shot me in
the buttocks, with a Devilish grin,
spent all my money in a rush
then left my heart effete pink mush.


These are poems about Eros, the...

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‘so glad ya made it out alright,’ she says.
‘i’m feelin’ a whole lot better knowin’ that the crops’re bein’ taken care-uh.”
you nod, smile politely
and step out of your car straight into drying mud.
‘i just don’t...

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How I Got Rich and What Happened Then

I used to eat my lunch with groups
of businessman from Campbell's Soups.

We drank a drink at lunch each day
Of Coca-Cola mixed with hay

And talked of pending corporate plans
And...

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Zotëri Count Dracula
is a terrible, Transylvanian host
Mister Tarantula Fangs serves watered down pâté:
Fermented, sour liver compost

I know, 
because my Planet Terror peep Tarantino
said so

Vladdie’s batty bandë
campy lip sync way too much on the fly
Playing air...

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The Eager Traveler
by Ahmad Faraz
translation by Michael R. Burch

Even in the torture chamber, I was the lucky one;
When each lottery was over, unaccountably I had won.

And even the mightiest rivers found accessible refuge in me;
Though...

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Again, the great slow rolling rumble
As the gray shield of the sky shakes above.

     It comes as does some giant, or prowling beast of such kind
     Black,...

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No matter what, I can't do it.
Bother someone else with my issues.
After all I created all my problems, right?
Of course I did, I needed no help in making them.
And I need no help fixing them.
No...

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The seductive voice
emanating from the Cyclops eye,
whispers:    Don’t believe what you see!
Only trust what I say,
when you zombie sleep turn off the TV

Have no bewitching faith in your bad dreams,
especially the one...

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