Long Stools Poems

I met a proper woman in a proper pub on a Monday in Peoria. It was noon, time for lunch, and we were sitting stool to stool over very large burgers at a long mahogany...

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The greatest performance of my life.  
Howard’s proud piece de resistance award  on Poetry Nook for my magnum opus “Rush Amid The Rapids” in their daily member section.
After endless hours of toil, tribulation,...

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“Concrete Hearts, the Deep End Keys and the Miniaturist's Poetry of Sleep”

Following the Babel paths,
where footprints progress
like rough-hewn braille,
temptation shows itself well deep
to be turned and touched,
substantially labyrinth

The Open 
is lead  
further in, and...

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Choose unironically ripping off a film to be ironic
Choose now because then will never be enough
Choose puff puff puff puff puff pass because you’ll never have enough
Choose feeling guilty in the morning because it’s better...

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Ace colonoscopy doctor Kellen Karl Kovalovich

revisited January 23rd, 2024
on the evening before yours truly
(the one and only Matthew Scott Harris),
a stand up comic wannabe, who
historically heartily hales 
from Schwenksville, Pennsylvania
undergoes oh joy rapture colonoscopy.

Three days...

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Unquotable Quotes VIIIL : SEXUAL HARASSMENT* - the feminist kind

(*”aggressive pressure or intimidation”: Is it really “any different” in most cases in the act, judging by Hollywood standards?)

STOP: ARREST ALL GIRLS
 - standing with legs...

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They sit on their own
in their Hermit Kingdom
other side of the wall
singing their song 
entitled 
nothing to envy

peeling the skin 
away in generations 
it's worse than a famine
where colour 
is wrung 
from the inside out

emotive...

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My roommates Leong, Sophie, (Charles) and I were coming from a Yale sporting event. The sky looked like a dirty Swiffer-mop and the wind seemed to be ignoring the posted 20mph speed limit. It was...

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Prolonged offal bout courtesy constipation... turgid song redux,
a worse hellish fate than perdition really sucks

As of early morning
today - September 8th, 2022,
I could not but barely move
mine whole body felt
analogous to sluggish mollusk
frequent constipation found...

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I’m laughing this morning, spontaneously. We’re not studying any more. Our sophomore school year is over. I’m giddy, giggling, like a 9 year old on sugar.
I think I just finished the hardest class that I’ll...

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Ability to defecate wildly swings (both ways)...
between incontinence and constipation

Irritable bowel syndrome i.e.
the former excretory bout I address
the above (polite way to phrase diarrhea)
and avoid moon efficient cheekiness,
yours truly doth buttress,
a literal warranted pain in...

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“Die Another Day”


“Your mission, should you so deem it,
Is to infiltrate ALL Fluff Clusters in K.A.O.S. Headquarters
And bloody well steam it!”


“The Place is a hazardous mess of a trap
Over run with Double Agents, ulterior motives
Amorous...

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COMING HOME

She was an airport
on the flats by the river,
her signage, lights and markings
outlining corridors that couldn’t
be seen in the sunlight of day
A black silhouette from a full harvest
moon, he landed in her life full...

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Take your own sweet time, and let others keep time.
Tea for two always ends up in a hell-uv-a bellowing brew ;    
        tea and sympathy...

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POEMS ABOUT POOL SHARKS

Shark
by Michael R. Burch

They are all unknowable,
these rough pale men—
haunting dim pool rooms like shadows,
propped up on bar stools like scarecrows,
nodding and sagging in the fraying light...

I am not of them,
as I...

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POEMS ABOUT POOL SHARKS

Fair Game
by Michael R. Burch

At the Tennessee State Fair,
the largest stuffed animals hang tilt-a-whirl over the pool tables
with mocking button eyes,
knowing the playing field is unlevel,
that the rails slant, ever so slightly,...

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Enveloped in the mayhem of covid-19
We are seating ducks in our homes
Anxiously pondering about how the world post Covid- 19 would be like
Would it be welcoming?
Or rather vicious like a mad dog?
But one thing is...

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"Smoke Signals"




Her wet lips
long slender fingers
flipped the lit cigarette
3 
seconds 
it glowed
inhaled deep, 
hard
and real slow
crushed under
Vermillion 
manolo blahnik 
killer, 
Capital K
long bare legs in
deadly brutal
stilletos

The taste wasn’t sweet
Her last kiss
tasted of Manuka
and violet scented
dom...

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"Black Molasses"



Black Molasses 
holds to ransom 
footprints 
sucked into 
Tropic of Capricorn mud
as bushfires bleed
sugar from cane
like molten glucose 
shot into the veins
of Mother Earth gone all
libertine sour 
like Lemon Grass
crushed and burnt 
acrid smoke...

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I’m drunk, but you’re beautiful,
a line I used to rehearse.
The Dreamers’ artistic longing felt noble,
but it came with a curse.
I bought the ticket when I didn’t know better from worse.
Now I’ve got a tale of...

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Josh’s drinking days were long behind him.  The three beers he drank before ordering his meal; the two beers he drank during his meal; and, the two Bailey’s he consumed after his meal had...

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TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM PLEASE READ BRONTE INSPIRATION 1, 2 and 3 


Little Patrick in the nursery playing with his toys 
Asks ''MUM'' can I have a sister like the other girls and boy...

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Travelling on the road for business gets old fast.  The inside of one hotel room starts to look the same as another in any town you name.  When you travel by yourself it...

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AT THE NEON OF NIGHT

That night closed when the café did
With all the secrets a star once hid
There was the whisper of a woman’s woe
And a man with nowhere else to go

Two souls shunning the...

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I seethe with livid rage within the bowels of my being
when sitting upon the porcelain goddess ample defecation doth cling
immediately triggering an internal self hatred 
   charge of body electric to signal an...

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