Long Splintering Poems

Poems about the Coronavirus I


yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #1
by michael r. burch

plagued by the Plague
i plague the goldfish
with my verse



yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #2
by michael r. burch

sunflowers
hang their heads
embarrassed by their coronas

I wrote...

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Yet at this very moment the cathedral was crumbling
down upon the cries of foresaken refugees, 
the monastery's walls wobbling from war's wreckage, 
and as the black bursts billowed into sun drenched brutality
with the bodies of...

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yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #1
by michael r. burch

plagued by the Plague
i plague the goldfish
with my verse



yet another iffy coronavirus haiku #2
by michael r. burch

sunflowers
hang their heads
embarrassed by their coronas

I wrote this poem after having...

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As I pivot to confront my offspring, I anticipate the sight of terror etched in their innocent eyes, a reflected horror that would mirror the abyssal darkness that has long resided within me.

Instead, I am...

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Take me to the tombstone 
let me touch the gray stone that stands
where life could not
I will put my face to that touchstone of deaf thunder,
What happened  to your breath baby brother,
what happened in...

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In the copper-clad cradle of time
where gears whir fugues to forgotten dreams.....
the fog—a somnolent specter—drifts.....
veiling the calculus of progress
a manuscript etched by steam and soot.

Hark The hiss of pistons proclaims
a triumph—or perhaps a dirge—
for we...

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1.


In the slow, dead hours that hang attendant
Upon the birth of the dawn,
When all things pure lie safe abed,
Nested in sleep's safe oblivion,
The rituals take place, unseen, unfelt
In woods or alleys
In the dry, dusty corners...

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Prayers and stagnancy remained this day,
Many a glance did I try his way, 
Our Dragon’s dark, silhouetted form,
Pressed to the burning stone barrier
I could see and hear his dragon skin sizzle
Against it, he remained
Fuming as...

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In a little ultra Leftist bastion called Berkley
a congregation of American Libertarians came,
it was March 4th and proud patriots marched forth
in solidarity for America's freedoms,
celebrating inherent rights with gratitude
most of all the 1st Amendment was...

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stones
by michael r. burch


i.
far below me lies a village
with its houses hewn from stone
and though Everyman who lives there
bravely claims he’s not alone,
i can tell him, yes u are!
for u cannot touch the stars
no matter...

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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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On a Los Angeles street - play it brother, ladle it on black delirium
         A wind blows – from trumpets, oboes, and saxophones
    ...

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She sits there in the back of the class, doodling on her paperwork. Getting lost in 
the scribbles, tuning out the teacher, forgetting all the madness around her, her life 
fading in the paper. Slap!...

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Beneath the churning skies and wrathful sea, 
A lone man wails into swirling agony.
Each crashing wave, a relentless assault,
Mirroring the chaos of his inner tumult.

Beneath tempestuous heavens, alone he fights,
His vessel, both refuge and dungeon,...

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I love the sound of vases splintering on the floor 
I adore the music of my anger hitting the door to rebound
And resound in our ears
Echoing and crashing on my newly mopped floor
Tinkling broken china...

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Two soldiers. One fancies himself a punk rocking soldier of fortune and the other, nicknamed hillbilly, because he lost his shoes, they plan a trip anarchist cookbookrecipe fear and loathingbeyond culture shock  We journey...

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III

Kept out
   kept out he was: muzzled and shut out
from mothering social approval
    and the usual conning courtesies

Kept shut
  Involuting in the hippo-lipped paranoïa
from the darling eyes of his...

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for Granny Letchumi (b. fin 19th C. - d. 1978)

Once i was a prince in your highbeamed palm-thatched house
  timber and stone
   of hardened mud and cold green shiny cement
in your village...

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So! Now then begins thy fearful
Straits
As scourged by cruel, licentious 
Birch
Thou whilst surely delate:-
All that now is...
And all that has gone before,
All you once were...
And are now no more!
For liken to the widening socket
That doest...

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Down many of the coalmines in Yorkshire , Safety dictated that an alternative means of escape
had to be found just in case anything ever happened to the shafts that raised and lowered miners to their...

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A Saturday morning in June on a sunny day,
three hundred villagers were in the town square today.
For two hours, all the children, each man and his wife,
made a choice amongst themselves to sacrifice a life
While...

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she cowers in the corner 
when he comes home the 
mere clomp of the boots 
make their way to the room 
wherein she is hiding her
breathing rapidly increasing
her heart thumping louder
than his footsteps growing
closer while...

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In my fervent heart,
You knew I treasured you
But you didn’t return those tender feelings
Just see the fumes arise from the consuming fire
Because my wicked desires wasted away into embers
I love you…I love you…These feelings are...

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Deep ocean of azure blue

Overhead seagulls circling flew

In constant motion, heaving sides

The old merchant ship upon it rides

Rust scorched it's barnacled coat

Salt encrusted railings forever afloat

On the horizon's sinking sun's amber glow

Beckons enticingly along the...

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There was a bongoman, and he dreaming
Where the rock hovered above the blue sea
Looked through the white mist of a dew drenched morning
And clenched tight his memory of history
Black as midnight: showed me shining like...

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