Long Stodgy Poems

The Council room, back on the fifth floor of the Keep, was quite busy upon their arrival.  They stood just outside of the door waiting for the councilman to complete the business at hand...

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Pleasant spring like day February 9th, 2024

A scent (and sixth sense predominates),
when apple boughs
and other aromatic flora
laden with blossoms and fruit
gently assail cilia of the nostrils,
aside from aiding distinguishing 
pleasant or unpleasant smells 
additionally incorporate...

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COFFEE
       HOUSE 
       BLUES


I am
in the A.M.
Am I ?
I think I am!

It is A.M.
in the coffee house
down on MacDougal
down the stairs
behind closed doors
another...

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Always envious of gifted individuals with neat hand printing/writing

Gnome hatter heroic measures taken
moost ludicrously asinine,
nonetheless hoop fully
me legendary penta meat herd bovine design

of modest fellow (me) will endure as divine,
no matter not one bloody poetic...

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In a Stolen Moment
by Michael R. Burch

In a stolen moment,
when the clock’s hands complete their inevitable course
and sleep is the night’s dark spell,
I call it a curse,

seeking the force,
the font of candescent words, the electric...

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Limericks IX



Scratch-n-Sniff
by Michael R. Burch

The world’s first antinatalist limerick?

Life comes with a terrible catch:
It’s like starting a fire with a match.
Though the flames may delight
In the dark of the night,
In the end what remains from...

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I’m a stodgy old lady with suddenly too much time on her hands.
I was always too work worn to make big Halloween plans...

But as I walked thru Walgreen’s to get my latest meds…
I came up...

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bachelorhoodwinked
by michael r. burch

(a poem about wedlock, or lock->wed)

u
are
charming
& disarming,
but mostly ***ALARMING***
since all my resolve
dissolved!

u
are
chic
as a sheikh's
harem girl in the sheets
but castle's no longer my own
and my kingdom's been overthrown!



That Not-So-Mellow Fellow, Othello
by Michael R....

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Pleasant spring like day January 12th, 2020

Courtesy climate change
(think global warming),
I would never wish to exchange
unseasonable temperature
way out of range
far to balmy, undoubtedly
ole man winter
weather did shortchange.

Once thermometer readings rise
even smidgen one moost not minimize
Earth...

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Estranged to a lonely room
Littered with trash and splattered gloom
Fettered and sentenced to early doom
Distressed and distraught to a sordid mood
Creeps and crawls and stalks at night

To make sure the windows latched
To make sure the...

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We did not try as hard as we could
We got staid and stodgy and old and stale
We gave up after awhile
When we discovered our votes counted less than others
Discouraged, depressed, disappointing ourselves.
We are sorry, child,...

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My wooden dappled rocking horse
Chomping at the bit
Eyes deranged with fearsome fire
Does make my stomach flit
And whilst we race
At perfect pace
Within the purple yonder
No time to sit on laurels dear
Blow dandelions nor ponder

In hot pursuit
And...

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No tickee, no washee
You pay as you go
There are no free rides
As everyone knows
Yet some people try
Their gol' darn best
To beat the system
Get ahead of the rest

Like everyone else
They must play by the rules
Do they...

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Unlikely
this romance between
Miss Cricket
and stodgy
Buddy Biddle, so stagnant
set in his ways, stuck

While Cricket
eighty-nine years young
dances rings
around him
full of impish energy
mischievous antics

He proposed
but Miss Cricket won't
marry him
knows better
she's outlived countless lovers
and won't be tied down

She's having
way...

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I see you on stage, accepting your badge
Looking like time erased all definition
From your stodgy face
Sometimes I wonder if you realize
what you've done-
In interviews, always cagey
Mercurial like the days of England
prancing on half-beaten guitars
With a...

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Decreased dissension 
grudgingly did abate
unclouded protests trumpet
Trump to abdicate
irrefutable proof generates
activist voices to accumulate
linkedin over Green Party 
blessedly to administrate

hoop fully figurative tide
will turn and aerate
political atmosphere whereby
progressive minds will affiliate
otherwise business as usual,
cuz spewing...

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If I only had one day to live on earth's fragile dimension
I would pass by all fears that kept me standing like rock,
Dismissing stodgy impulses to win in a concrete contention
For my instincts to release,...

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I wonder if it is true,
That we produce more E-waste than food for you and me.

If I had a magic wand on me,
I would turn my electronics waste into food for more than just me.

As...

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I will be blithe tonight.
The wind is high
I will walk alone beneath the sky
I will not let it happen, this tendency
To see oneself so righteous, so sober
The monotony of age overcoming
Rejecting what is curious, young...

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Brexit Sonnet No. 36
‘Pancaked’
 

It's pancaked, this great idea now bashed and battered, 
This stodgy mix of odds and ends whisked up,  
Our hopes of future fortune cruelly shattered,  
Wine with lemon laced,...

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*   *   *

At Pheasant Farm a guest of Autumn yet an inch thick paints
a countryside in charcoals, stodgy reds, and umber browns
as temperatures slow drop and daylight shrinks to Summer's plaints
while...

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Waliking towards you with a smile on my face,
I promise in my life no one can take your place...

Looking at you with those twinkling eyes,
Within you my life lies...

With my head on your shoulder, with...

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gingerbread cottage was waiting for the right family
their kids were too loud
there was no discipline
this was not happening
she showed them her meanness
this family ran out screaming

why are you so picky? realtor asked after they had...

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It's either too hot or too cold here,
the thermostat in hell must be broke again.
Maybe this is Purgatory
i'm told the Governor of purgatory
can't fix anything and he dithers a lot.

Someone has turned down
the dimmer switch...

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    My mind is not a library of ancient,
    stodgy old books.
    It looks like a rushing rainbow mercury 
    river that finds...

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