Long Specter Poems

the Horror
by Michael R. Burch

the Horror lurks inside our closets
the Horror hides beneath our beds
the Horror hisses ancient curses
the Horror whispers in our heads

the Horror tells us Death is coming
the Horror tells us there’s no...

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Sonnets LII-LX

The Endeavors of Lips
by Michael R. Burch

How sweet the endeavors of lips: to speak
of the heights of those pleasures which left us weak
in love’s strangely lit beds, where the cold springs creak:
for there is...

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A Vain Word
by Michael R. Burch

Oleanders at dawn preen extravagant whorls
as I read in leaves’ Sanskrit brief moments remaining
till sunset implodes, till the moon strands grey pearls
under moss-stubbled oaks, full of whispers, complaining
to the darkening...

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Completing the Pattern
by Michael R. Burch

Walk with me now, among the transfixed dead
who kept life’s compact and who thus endure
harsh sentence here?among pink-petaled beds
and manicured green lawns. The sky’s azure,
pale blue once like their eyes,...

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Under the cadence of footsteps on worn cobblestones,
At the café where steaming cups held time hostage,
Eyes met and lingered, a glance stretched into an eternity.
A young American, as if sculpted from sunshine itself,
And she, like...

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Rosalia - The Evil Witch of the Harz, Part Four

Rosalia’s Date with Destiny and the Power of Light and Goodness
It is said that the Almighty Lord God works in very mysterious ways . . ....

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Sings the story at twilight 
When the moon is just rising, 
Sings a simple troubadour 
The short tale of life. 

How a fine boy, 
Born in a palace, 
A palace like crystal, 
Became a proud...

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Once so loyal and always true the gargoyles watch everything now
During their stony slumbers with their careful one-eyed open view,
As evil red-eyed demons rain down upon us in their dark-sprit forms,
Whilst our unsuspecting mortal Earth...

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“Up men to your posts! Don’t forget today that you are from old Virginia.” 
– General George Pickett

Beneath Gettysburg's sun a merciless blaze
Stood Pickett with his face etched with war's haunting gaze.
A mind torn asunder...

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A Bohemian Maze of True Evil

Once so loyal and always true the gargoyles watch everything now
During their stony slumbers with their careful one-eyed open view,
As evil red-eyed demons rain down upon us in their dark-sprit...

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Once so loyal and always true the gargoyles watch everything now
During their stony slumbers with their careful one-eyed open view,
As evil red-eyed demons rain down upon us in their dark-sprit forms, 
Whilst our unsuspecting mortal...

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Through shadowed trails beneath the moon’s cold stare.
     Its Amber gaze: a burden hard to bear.
This feathered prize found peace in my gut
     No slumber dreamt; no...

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The walls are imprisoned in silence,
A heavy, powerless silence, shattered
By voices, tears, and crowded souls.
Justice hides in the corridors of greed,
Crimes are sentences uttered in the halls,
The innocent are moving targets,
An age-old burden on the...

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Beneath the pall of an eldritch moon, 
                           ...

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(Brian Johnston speaks to Lora Colon)  

Getting older don't you wonder 
What your life is all about? 
Wages earned don't leap to haunt me 
Like my dreams of fighting trout - 
Lightning flash and...

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Sophistication of sinister online skulduggery...

lurks within the outer limits of cyberspace,
where dark shadows eclipse edge of night
indistinguishable from the twilight zone.

Within the Internet binary size weavers loom
shuttlecock whizzes (analogous to a bad mitten)
at speed of...

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I, heart on sleeve ... proudly? I suppose, in a contrite way ...
          but it's beyond my breadth to control, so it is what it IS.
...

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Along a quiet river to nowhere were styx lean like broken crosses. The wind is gentle with a sent of quite decay or is that brimstone in these sinister currents, that spin! A black river...

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Paris November 13th Makes Me Weep — Afterthought

The shock and tragedy of this most horrendous event of slaughter, murder, and unmitigated evil are indeed a very sad commentary on the state mankind finds itself in...

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Into the woods we ventured, where darkness began to encircle us,
Their ancient murmurs mingling with the forest’s ominous chorus.
A chilling breeze, as if the very breath of the woods sighed,
Veiled in tempestuous clouds, the stars...

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Written: January 22, 2025 for contest Sponsored by: Kai Michael Neumann

Quote: “In the dynamic world society which is the objective of the United Nations, all peoples must have equality and equal rights" By Ralph Bunche,
...

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The pale apparition swirls in on night mist.
It envelopes her body, then breathes out its kiss.
Cold to her cheek as the fog to the shore;
She utters a sigh then sleeps deeply once more.
 
She’s new...

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[An Autumn kitchen a crucible of y e a s t and y e a r n i n g]

Samantha kneads dough with determined hands, she hears
    Hank's cry—"Vi vi an"—a phantom...

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      As I fall into the buzzing altar of heavy 
metal shifting sand, maw, swirling sheets, 
illness drools plus plus halcyon?
drawn too many wrinkles...

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Cypress trees like evergreen steeples
rise above rows of gravestone woes,
their shadows lie side by side like railroad ties 
across writhing paths banded like snakes;
gravel birth cords sinuous 
sensing the ground   seeking the sun
crossroads...

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