Long Thinned Poems

See
by Michael R. Burch

See how her hair has thinned: it doesn’t seem
like hair at all, but like the airy moult
of emus who outraced the wind and left
soft plumage in their wake. See how her eyes
are...

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For All That I Remembered
by Michael R. Burch

For all that I remembered, I forgot
her name, her face, the reason that we loved ...
and yet I hold her close within my thought:
I feel the burnished weight...

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At Tintagel
by Michael R. Burch

That night, 
at Tintagel, 
there was darkness such as man had never seen...
darkness and treachery, 
and the unholy thundering of the sea...

In his arms, 
who is to say how much she...

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Sonnets XVII-XXIV

Discrimination
by Michael R. Burch

The meter I had sought to find, perplexed,
was ripped from books of "verse" that read like prose.
I found it in sheet music, in long rows
of hologramic CDs, in sad wrecks
of long-forgotten...

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Dream-worker 
delves deeply into my dream;

vibrations fondle anticipation
foreplay wakes wide-eyed 
swells of liquid libido quake the rendezvous edge -
a primordial being in his prime
a masculine ego quest for affaire d’amour;
her night-loving body 
c h a...

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I wonder if everyone
has a most dreaded dreamed
nightmare worst way 
to conscientiously drop wrong dead.

Mine is claustrophobi-recallish buried
half alive at best is worse
in a wooden rough pine crate.

I'm feeling angry with those who raped,
then buried...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems XII

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

for Beth

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly,...

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The flames of the furnace (well-travelled by wind
slowly glazing the rags of gray women chagrined
at the sight of a hair fleeing tresses now thinned) 
sometimes billow like waves flooding naves through the night,
when the lightning...

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Dead Man Tales
shards of glass pearl the emperor's rise,
his arms embracing upon our sins and lies, 

do not deceive yourself , my friend.
in the twilight of our beings our corruption merges and blends.

there is no...

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In golden chains of bondage, was the royal queen
Brought forth, force to kneel, before the newly crowned
Pharaoh of Egypt!
Branded a heretic, a blasphemer of the Gods, a traitor to
Her people, unworthy to wear the serpents...

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Caw,Caw,Caw, cried the crow of shiniest black. So  beautiful in his coat of silky dark feathers. Strutting about on a small table top, in his beak, a new found treasure. A ring of sparkling...

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Her long silken hair has thinned and turned to grey.
Brother, if we keep trying, I know we can find a way
to keep Mum safe at home, so she need never fear.
I don't want to send...

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I can feel it. 
It’s not quite tangible, 
Just out of reach,
Yet nonetheless real. 
Like a sixth sense on my sixth sense. 
The anticipation hangs in the air, 
The thick, jelly like, immovable air. 
Tempers...

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“…Let the sunshine (and let the sun shine on in)
Let the sunshine in (You got to open up your heart)…"
-- From Aquarius, by The 5th Dimension


The times they were a-changing,
an age of great unrest.
A Ball...

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They sit at benches;
Small legs swing above
Green industrial tile.

They sit at benches;
Thin arms cross around
Frail, frightened bodies.

They sit at benches;
Lips thinned upon
Tightly clenched teeth.

They sit at benches;
Down-cast eyes inside
Sunken, hollow faces.

They sit at benches;
Tiny fists...

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we gather together, a hundred or so
stetching, warming cold muscles, just waiting to go

nervous anticipation, just wanting to start,
we collect our numbers, have a piss, have a fart

as our tummies stir with butterflies and angst
we...

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I got drunk by my self last night
There was just nothing else to do
I told myself that itll be alright
If I could just get that memory out of sight

My eyes are half closed
From staring down...

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I sit and pause, looking at the sky blue ceiling above me. White vapour cotton wool clouds
gently float like water lilies on an upside down pond. My humble seat, an igneous rock
from the Devonian period....

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New Guinea Kokoda Campaign

In 1942 the Japs appeared, took all the islands north.
Our troops were mainly school boys and for New Guinea bound.
13,000 Japs landed, climbed up Kokoda and came forth.
As  Yanks,  Macarthur's...

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Why don't we discard the mask, let all the stage props fall?
The answer, whispered through shadows, is found in our sunlight-forgotten guise.
The true color has washed away in the rains of days, so that we...

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I look up sometimes, when surrounded by green,
To things above, which have yet to be seen.
In the dark green forest, with twinkling light,
With golden rays, that fade into night.

Long canes of a glorious and wonderful...

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Sometimes I burn with desire and passion
The feeling that entangles my heart and mind 
That makes me vulnerable to emotions
It pierces me from within, sets my body in rage
Love is hell burns internally, where is...

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You forced us from our lands 
Killed our warriors and our brides
Called us filthy savages 
Filled the history books with lies

We were a powerful nation 
Lived peacefully from the land 
Had families that we loved...

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What happens to the angel figure, that we make
In the newly fallen snow, does it simply waste away
Forgotten beneath the October moon?
Oh no my dearest friends for it has been blessed,
By the laughter of innocence...

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Through thinned forests where the dew of time is carried, the ancient chant of desire roams,
And shadows of men, like spirits in festivity, stretch their endless palms of wanting.
Sleepwalkers amongst stars that never slumber, searching...

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