Long Taupe Poems

Where Does the Butterfly Go?
by Michael R. Burch

for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba

Where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails,
when thunder howls,
when hailstones scream,
when winter scowls,
when nights compound dark frosts with snow ...
Where...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems IX

These are early poems of mine, written in my teens as a high school student and during my first two years of college.

Shock
by Michael R. Burch

It was early in the morning of...

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Trompe L'oeil
I use to be so sure of my colors
But now my vision is jaded
Perhaps it is obscured
from the THOUSANDS of tears I've shed

I taught you
the primary colors, RED, YELLOW, and BLUE
The shades of red...

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I was a red-violet, sunny morning person, usually up at the crack of dawn,
When orange light poured from the east, upon revival, dewy green lawns.

With a cup of aromal coffee, I'd watch yellow sunrise creep...

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“There shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth”,
I’d read it and read it again.
And I’d heard of it preached from all pulpits the same,
warning me of the crisis I’m in.

So, I pondered and...

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Small Packages

She was so cute.
Standing in the check-out line
Pretty dark golden-brown skin
Five foot tall? Not even that, I thought
Seventy years old?  Maybe more
High top laced black shoes,
Black stockings and skirt
Black check with gold stripe...

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Billowing taupe clouds, hunker down and hem in the Peninsula,
The morning rips open
A glimpse of sun shone; a lemon curd slivers between slits of of silver illumination
The first hint of light glances up frothing crests...

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                                  Colourification--...

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Poème poète égyptien : Abdel Latif Moubarak

Traduction: Nuran Hourani

Toi;

Votre terre;

Te jette.

sur l'aile d'un poème; tu repose

Peut etre ; ne pas égarer  de vous laisser tomber ...

Pays;  sur la porte de l'enfer même si...

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As I have walked pass or visited high-in rich subdivisions and gated communities, I have noticed all the homes are from the same color bracket. They are either beige, brown, cream, tan, camel, oatmeal, caramel,...

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Obdurate goat tangles rough knotted rope
Stuck beside shadowy friend, Silky Oak
Hedonistic prisoner capricorn, cheap trope
Ethics remain riddle, morals mere joke


Towered timber utters truth in its creak
Canopy clapping hands crush recollection 
Billion fingered Silky Oak, silver...

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Taking Today's Tumblerful Tea Time

This teetotaler turns to tea
torquing temptation
towards tippling
thankfully, though
that tremendous tugging

teasing tendency thirst trumped,
thru teaching this totally tubular
toothless titular Texan thuggish tyrant
(titled Tsar Terry Troutman)
transcendental theology

tenets taught transferring
torpedoing, taming threatening
titanic tsunami tempest
tastefully...

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I wish 
to be darling 
to sing of love
to woo you

perhaps now I am

This strangely artistic hint of a thing 
This will of the wisp of a thing
This wind and bone marrow 
left over thing
A...

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This teetotaler turns to tea
torquing temptation
towards tippling
thankfully, though
that tremendous tugging

teasing tendency thirst trumped,
thru teaching this totally tubular
toothless titular Texan thuggish tyrant
(titled Tsar Terry Troutman)
transcendental theology

tenets taught transferring
torpedoing, taming threatening
titanic tsunami tempest
tastefully tickling temperance
testing trying taut...

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Burn, Ovid
by Michael R. Burch

“Burn Ovid”—Austin Clarke

Sunday School,
Faith Free Will Baptist, 1973:
I sat imagining watery folds
of pale silk encircling her waist.
Explicit sex was the day’s “hot” topic
(how breathlessly I imagined hers)
as she taught us the...

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Caressing the mind
And kissing
Glossy, smooth stones
Liquid rippling
Flowing over the bed
Hues of taupe
Sand and charcoal
With hints of lavender
Coloring the emotions
Wistful, willful, warm
Like the flavor
Of a rising storm

Resting on the sand
Brilliant like the sunshine
Glowing in moonlight
Smooth stones
Risking...

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In aquamarine ran off my warmth traversing 
mild meadows with swallows of ash 
past the pink sunset 

Three cherry cardinals swooped past partly pleased 
the brook trickled near 

Evading were than icon imaginings 
the following...

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Dark green is my jealousy, red is my love
Purple is for righteous anger
And that from heaven above.
Blue is my humour side
But it is really quite pale.
Brown is for misery,
But we don’t want to hear that...

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There’s one place I go to, quite frequently I may add.
It’s quiet and secluded from everything, but most importantly, everyone.
No one knows of this room,
The color is taupe with bare walls all except one picture.
The...

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In the beginning it was chuckles, kisses and adoration
Your expression-smug, intense and bursting with admiration
I was the perfect blend of gilded taupe for your fixation
From a color palatte too vast and wide for your comprehension
Like...

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Written In Beige

Against the bleak bank wall he leans
as the sidewalk moves sideways
across his tangential thoughts.
People pass, the dull parade,
the money-grubbers and hoarders
in their shiny suits that mock
his existence. Sad clouds meld
into a sullen gray...

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The psychology of the sun is strange...

The violinist's taupe 
strapped sandals, color of beach 
sand, burning, slap tiles

with embedded grime, like
the charred plaster walls of a Syrerian
merchant. Anytime...a fear:

bombs dropped, scarring 
an isolated biped life.
Morning...

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My leather glove is missing - now I only have one
It’s useless on it’s own when all is said and done

These gloves were precious to me, I’m sure you’ll understand
But I can’t leave the house...

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Beside the sea i wait~
the dreamy dawn to shine
and paint horizon's hue
in tawny, taupe and teal
unveiling vivid view.

Beside the sea I wait~
the early birds in flight
arching like tiara 
making sky a painting 
of placid aurora.

Beside...

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As the taupe-toned twilight 
begins to capture the day~
his image is slowly etched
upon the drifting penumbra
waiting to immerse
in her winter dreams.

And as the nocturnal shades 
slowly transform~
from sepia to radiant hues;
He swims into her lake...

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