Long Tallow 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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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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January 13th 2024 - Happy Lxv-th birthday Matthew Scott Harris

date of conception:?  ~ Late March – mid April 1958.
date of parturition: January xiii, mcmlix.
date of expiration:? January i, eminem, 
where earth, wind, and fire...

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Happy Lxiv birthday Matthew Scott Harris

date of conception:?  ~ Late March – mid April 1958.
date of parturition: January xiii, mcmlix.
date of expiration:? January i, eminem.

A gangly, measly, and scraggly bundle
of lovely bones even as...

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Global pride! Greatest story-theme worldwide! Oceanic!
Voyage liner - Atlantic! British cruise ship! Titanic!
Born in the yard of Harland and Wolf! Floated to venture!
Who did ever dream of a deadliest wreck- adventure?

Christened after Titans of the...

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The bones of winter cracked the ice black, coal black night.
A hoary wind spits frost crystals that dazzle and blur the sight.
Boney fingers of bare deciduous wood, scratch against the eaves
as the stranger's tread crackles...

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‘ Legendary …’  ( Part  4 (of) 4 ) 



Now, that the Maiden was Unaided, Quickly, ‘He’ Located, Her Craftily
Beth, was in A Flurry, Too Much in a Hurry to Hear Turning of...

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Cadaverous climate controlled cave creature 

(Idea birthed, engendered, and germinated 
from Lombok Indonesia earthquakes
On 5 August 2018, 
a destructive and shallow earthquake
measuring Mw 6.9 
(ML 7.0 according to BMKG) 
struck the island 
of Lombok, Indonesia),
rendering...

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Yours truly snapped, popped,
and cracked his crown out cervix
(I'll spare ye the bloody graphics),
whence obstetrician able, eager, and
ready underscored with italics

to pass (think football) garden variety
wrinkled newborn asthma
noggin heralded lix
plus deux orbits ago
sported an ordinary

uneventful,...

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frankly zapped after wildly oscillating
in tandem with seven bobble heads and ten French horns)
a devilish trumpeting event
by pre-Christian Celtic festival standards
with a “proto” Don twick or tweeting
like a Taj Mahal wonder of webbed, wide world...

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I always wondered where the dirt came from, cleaning had me in a rut.
I don’t allow shoes inside, and with air conditioning, I keep the windows shut.
My mother said it came from dirt goblins, they’re...

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Christmas by Invitation

My dearest Emmanuel – God with us -
Answering your Christmas celebration invitation
Reserving stable Space Via this Prayer
Watching with a child’s delight
Your birth announcement rising up above the snow 
Of star dusted mountaintops
As you...

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They dance around my head at night; trying to steal my sleep;
Women I’ve desired, a place I want to be;
They sing a song I’ve heard but don’t know;
And in the song that they now sing;...

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As a young boy
    I watch with interest the small man
   Wolf Hunter - a wise father of the hunt


He begins an old ritual
   coating his knife blade...

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(Idea engendered from Lombok earthquake: Indonesia)

Nary a chink of illumination pierces thru
thick cavernous rock solid chamber home
     to this crepuscular anchorite,
who spent untold countless chunks of time
holed up deep underground

 ...

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Yours truly an aging baby boomer
long haired pencil necked geek
trademark disheveled characteristics
whipsawed ever faster around sun.

He (best buddy and alter ego of mine) 
snapped, popped, and crackled 
firstly his crown out cervix
subsequently skinny arms and...

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One of your relatives sprouted behind my house
Cut it down twice...fat chance
Ended up damaging my half paid for home
I wanted revenge, so I resorted to torture
Dug up and hacked roots; soaked oil and poison
No dice...stripped...

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No hearts and flowers for me on Valentine's Day,
so Cupid, don't take aim with your arrows.
My heart will not allow love to sweep me away.

For past passion there was a profuse price to pay.
I was...

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In the house where I was born
We tied our laces in the dark
Then shuffled down the stairs without a lamp.
We breathed a foggy whisper
On a window webbed with frost
And we swore, and we swore,
And we...

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Another poem that I wrote alone,
Another one that blossomed from woe.
Will this be the last poem I'll writ?
The gift from the Goddess thrown in a pit?
Have I deicided the Moon's tallow dreams;
A divulged matricide to...

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Light leavens leaden doors.

Genealogies of genocide are lost
      in long night rides through thistled trees,
               ...

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Walls breathe insistent hunger,
red as the inside of a split pomegranate,
richer still where the tallow has melted,
slick as the fat from a burnt offering. 

Scarpia does not eat.
He savors—sounds of gristle 
snapping in the next...

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People of Color

“People of color”- indeed!  How absolutely ridiculous! 'I am “people of color”'!!! My eyes are blue like a summer sky, azure like the sea. They are green and gray and brown and...

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Nature's, anesthetizing beauty held 
tightly in escrow
'Til on tendered form its heavenly 
charm can bestow

Fair maiden strides through 
manicured meadow
In her lovely essence, the enchanted 
flora doth wallow

Overhead, azure canvas paints a 
regal halo
Her satin...

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Candle bright affection 
is melting
Trust is on the wane,
our love light is flickering

Vows of fidelity
was such a beautiful beginning
Heartfelt words spoken with sincerity
had no echo fear of ending

This love burned so bright,
but only for a...

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