Long Sty Poems

Native American Translations

Cherokee Travelers' Blessing I
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

I will extract the thorns from your feet.
For yet a little while, we will walk life's sunlit paths together.
I will love you like my own...

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Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch 

(dedicated to my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch Sr.)

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the front porch swing,
dangling his long...

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In a small village in the green valleys of the Peak District, Sarah gave birth to a son, after a decade of trying for a child with her husband, Peter B Perfekt.  It was...

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as the PROPHETS of profits, WE lead and WE’re fair
while WE’re living the life of the poor BILLIONAIRE
– silver yachts, pearly castles, cash (plenty to spare) –
with the world on OUR backs... ah! the burdens...

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I have been writing this verse since last night
But my heart was so heavy, my tongue cleaved  
To the roof of my mouth and it felt as though 
Something has fallen through the roof
I...

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The great poets begged for muse and not for moments stolen.
We lesser mortals cup in hand beg, not for attentions’ span nor
cause to celebrate, but Time; a worthy goal.
Seconds spent pondering half-held slow bled moments
shuffling...

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Alien talk I can’t understand
A Pifflewig performed a handstand
He verbalised through his ass
Gross putrid wind he did pass
Like many blokes throughout the land!

I farted, perhaps it was fear
Foul wind was expelled from my rear
The pifflewig...

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The uniform on the floor was to be washed, dried then ironed but the scones that the pig ate meant that a walk to some hidden caves was achieved but only after the recycling was...

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A conversation between a lady of noble birth and a certain gentleman as recorded by Steven Ureke in one of his Poetry Journals. 

O, maiden! 
What beauty you portray. 
For a mother, 
You are perfect...

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When Pigs Fly
by Michael R. Burch

On the Trail of Tears,
my Cherokee brothers,
why hang your heads?
Why shame your mothers?
Laugh wildly instead!
We will soon be dead.

When we lie in our graves,
let the white-eyes take
the woodlands we loved
for...

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Power begins a trickle,
     Becomes a river,
          From the giver,
            ...

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Revelations of the Spirit!

Good things are known to come to those who come before their God,
who praise release from earthly woes by celebrating days
of spilling sperm (that meets its end or egg that sparks new...

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Run Bacon run, the sound come echoing from the gun, run bacon run there is nothing to fear hold on to the third and the fifth gear. The oil is in the hip, grease your...

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Going To The Fair

	A farmer owned a large bull who was very big and strong and had a very high opinion of himself. One day the farmer’s bull was being lead to the fair, the...

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Taxes are not talking nor are they taxis. But airports are often very congested. Packed tightly forming queues. Vastly unreported by news. News are neatly arranged newts in a bath licking ice cream. And a...

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1. A satellite on me is so superfluous
b’cos even without it, you’ll see my flaws
my new adulthood on your eyes is a sty
as my every late night makes you pray and cry
anytime my rebellion faces...

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Sending the tending to an unfriended ending,
 yet somehow suspending from rending a newly offending recommending.
Logotype monotype linotype,
overripe stereotype,
 teletyped an unripe heliotype. 
Guttersnipe snipe,
 stipe snipe ripe,
 a wipe type a tripe, 
unleash a...

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You can put lipstick on that pig if you want but it’ll still stink up the sty,
You can put wings on a penguin but that bird won’t learn to fly.
You can tell me all the...

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Yours truly never heard, seen, no lies
particularly when alone
facing my (pushing up daisies) demise,
without pretense nor guise,
he honestly decries
smelled, tasted, nor touched, any size,

and essentially knew nothing besides
ancient fruit grown in Japan
for past 1,000 years...

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Friendless 




I noticed my address book,
So decided to take a look,

Starting at the beginning under A,
Everyone on this page has gone away,

Turning to the next page under B,
Totally blank no one here to see,

Must be...

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S€CRET $OCIETIES 

There it was on the internet for the world to see
“the secrets of the masons and secret societies.”
There were names and there were dates and details by the score
till the secret of their...

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Brainstorming (For Me) Generates "Writer's Block"

Lesson obstruction,
     but more so an over
     whelming flood of ideas
     makes dredging, conceiving
than giving birth
to an amenable...

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Remember Beefsteak Charlies?
I don’t remember the last time I saw one
but every time I see one of those
tomatoes, I remember Charlie
my Charlie, the one who befriended me
he didn’t have to, after all					
he was my grandfather.
Charlie...

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You want it to make sense
You want it to become clear
Your feigned self importance
No longer precious or dear
But the only one caring
And the one still in doubt
A mirrored reflection 
Of what never comes out
Lunch breaks...

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So yo’ farm masters
got yo’ phat attractive features
listed on public notice,
at da commodity trading display — touting you as
one fine looking hoofed creature

State Fairs have long been
4-H 401k 
good capital investment forays
Sow auctions are traditional;
if...

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