Long Target practice Poems

With my Uyghur poetry translations I am trying to build awareness of the plight of Uyghur poets who are being sent to Chinese "reeducation" concentration camps.

Elegy
by Perhat Tursun
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Asylum seekers, will...

Read More

Be Embarrased by Arms

The right of a person to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed upon when in a
well-regulated militia necessary for the security of a free state. In other words, if 
you...

Read More

Perhat Tursun

Perhat Tursun (1969-) is one of the foremost living Uyghur language poets, if he is still alive. Born and raised in Atush, a city in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Tursun began writing poetry...

Read More

So here's my question for this dawning day,
like a WinWin ruminating message in a bottle
floating through a LoseLose climate sea
felt still foggy from last night,
some mysterious how now;

One of many
health related strategic WinLose issues
tuning out...

Read More

Wow, look, we can save $500!

I wonder how much we must invest
to generate this savings.

Oh, I see.
We need only buy a new or used car,
which, of course, as everyone knows,
is something that we truly truly...

Read More

"Gospels"

 

Gospels are lost on a god
words are never hidden
under rocks 
unturned stones
for the hiding

Poets caress swords
a legend firm in their hearts
undrawn they hold it out
as victor for witness
and target, practice

to fall on love 
brutally...

Read More

IF EVER I HAD A COUNTRY: LXXIX -  Bang! Bang! Who Shot Me Down like an Un-licensed Dog !

IF ever I had a country, a country certainly 
not subject to the whistle of a...

Read More

IF GOD GIVES UP ON US

Open season
the games have begun
We be target practice
Shoot randomly
no penalty

Kill at will
...if you will
Lives don't
matter to the people
you're chanting to

Kill for thrill
new sport
Kill at will
...if you think
Lives matter
watch the gavel...
justice...

Read More

What do you think about having babies who are only six months old becoming conscious of their races? Additionally learning how to discriminate against the existing targeted and targeting races.  In short the white...

Read More

In the 1970's when Roe Verse Ray was enacted into federal law.  America'a hedge of protection by our Lord God was critically damaged. However, in 2015 when Gay Marriage became federally legalized! Our Godly...

Read More

It’s so serious,
it ain’t even funny
High times going on
in a White House underground bunker,
where Archie is glassblowing
American taxpayers’ money
He got heavy munchies
of Jughead hero dreams
Telling his kitchen cabinet
to kiss the silver signet 
of his fingered...

Read More

Stop! The violent protests and leave peaceful protesters out to make a difference strictly along.  Whether you are in law enforcement or the national guard. You need to pray for peaceful solutions!  But...

Read More

Please don’t blame the automatic weapon
that synagogue killed me, tragically,
the other day
The hands which held it
are Second Amendment clean — 
Gunpowder washed in crimson water
of dogma purity

I was just the latest recipient
of an over-the-counter, scarlet...

Read More

There is an innocence…a purity our children possess…which I suspect
we, the parents, do our best to nurture and protect

We strive to preserve their innocence…anyway we can…anyhow
for as long as the Gods we believe in…or destiny...

Read More

Eyes of a trader 
With words of wisdom
You make destruction look so good
You don't use force
But the beauty and cursive of your words is tantalizing 

You can make dreams come true
But what they don't realize...

Read More

Every day...in fact, every 15 minutes,
someone, somewhere in America
picks up a gun and kills another person
for reasons unfathomable

It's a harsh, scalding reality...

Every now and then in our society
someone who shouldn't have an assault rifle,
takes it...

Read More

these men & women with guns
these hired killers
these individuals who walk with a flag tattooed on their arm
these nationalists by default
these tools of the great military-industrial complex
these robots who get wd-40 squirted on their gears
ever...

Read More

Christmas of my tenth year brought a four-ten shotgun.
No longer a tag-along kid
Assaulting the deep drifts struggling to keep up,
But a real hunting buddy.

First rule was to memorize the ten commandments of gun safety.
I labored...

Read More

Guns?guns kill people?
guns do kill people
it is not mental illness?
it is not video games
?it is not a million other things


it is simply this
?a gun is a weapon?
a weapon designed to kill people?
that is what guns...

Read More

Never felt I’d get to be that guy
Who hurts a girl so much she cries
Never thought I’d be that guy
Who denies and tells so many lies
Never ever knew it would come to this
Cause I’ve always...

Read More

The Poetic Mastermind of these times, 
Penetrating with organically written rhymes,
Before you now, I’ve already won, 
Speaking in fluent poetic tongues, 
To all the puppets blindly strung,
Classic lyrical plots, stung by the gunshots on some...

Read More

Ice cream and ices, ice cream and ices
Get your fudgywugies here is screamed
Heard clear emerging from the tunnels
Under the boardwalks promenade shadows 
Loud and clear come good humor men in white
Ridiculous in their black shoes...

Read More

.
The scent of Tube Roses
Is so overpowering 
From the bouquet 
That is on the casket
Allergeric nasal passages swelling 

                ...

Read More

My pens off safety and the trigger won't jam
You couldn't out write me if I had a broken hand
To get my name in the history of poetry is my plan
My pens off safety and the...

Read More

I was double aged in a gun barrel
Thirty silver pieces 
was gone in sixty trigger seconds

White smoke,
blue flame
Crimson puddles of scarlet pain

Crooked arch shot fear darts
from bent bow lips,
that appeared straight as an arrow

Caged number...

Read More