Long Thumbnail Poems

Sonnets XC-XCVII

Artificial Smile
by Michael R. Burch

I’m waiting for my artificial teeth
to stretch belief, to hollow out the cob
of zealous righteousness, to grasp life’s stub
between clenched molars, and yank out the grief.

Mine must be art-official?zenlike Art?
a...

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Cockroaches are generalized insects with few special adaptations. Most are the size of a thumbnail, but they can be as big as 3.8 inches and weigh 30 grams. Their largest wingspan is 7.3 in. They are...

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Catapulted into seething temperatures beyond the imagination 
risking excitement in escapades that may seem inane,
potential hazard weighted against predicament predestined,
at some future stage I might peer backwards and reassess,
initial impetuousness under caustic supernatant thumbnail,
maybe I...

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I'm willing to bet you've never accepted the idea that pain can be enjoyed. Perhaps you've mildly entertained the notion, but never truly grasped it's fundamentals.  Well my dear reader,  we have much to discuss. ...

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A thousand tumbles takes a bottle in the sea-
a thousand tumbles and whirls and swoops.
A million grains of sand takes that bottle in the sea,
to break apart,
and fragment like a snowflake fractal.
How many waves carry...

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Gratitude suffuses me today
at prospect to plumb the depths
of a fledgling friendship
(respecting fidelity to wife)
even one bound 
within the parameters of cyberspace,
I feel courtesy your amazing grace
figuratively stitching omnipotent binding
with virtual satin and lace
proceeding cautiously...

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Carefree in leisure time, one blasé tourist, 
almost happy, I once had collected a complicated stone;
after the sunny hours had ended and last opportunity
for keepsakes began.

In my hand the stone had kept all of its...

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Prune juice as effective emetic

Brainstorming yields casting 
the following plumbline 
netting genetic, italic, kinetic, 
magnetic, opportunistic, quixotic,
synchronistic, and universalistic result.

Ofttimes I experience constipation bout,
and thus the missus pours me a class
of natural laxative with clout
nursing...

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It’s been a while since I’ve had this feeling in my chest
Or had someone constantly on my mind. 

Like a song you constantly sing
Because it helps you get through the day
I keep singing about what...

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I know not the paint of your face nor the slang of your name
I know not the acoustic of your voice nor the creed before your knees 
I know not the double of helixes taut...

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inside my specially prepared womb
you're now firmly attached to me
now you're embedded
you'll come everywhere with me
here you'll be well nourished
developing from just one cell
i wonder what you look like
only my book can tell
just shorter than...

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*** A DAISY TALE ***

A single, wild, tiny daisy
Less than a thumbnail in size, swaying side to side
In the slight, burning whiffs of a summer’s breeze,
Growing out from next to the house,
From the corner where...

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Night and day, a thrashing
     like an invisible whiptail
surge van hail,
doth swell me bosom
     excruciatingly, doggedly blackmail
capriciously be-numbingly,
     aggravatingly assail
mine conscience in

 ...

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Midfall and nearly all the trees
Stand brown as broken sticks
Against a sky impossibly blue,
I in shirtsleeves a walking go
With love and longings as my companions
Kicking through the drifts of colored shards
Fallen with another Summer's stealthy...

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Scratched music of hillbilly washboards
From the scraping wings of the Katydids
Aloft in the Oaks
Reborn each night just beyond dusk
After the cicadas finish their warmup act

The Katydid return is glorious

Their little sound so loud
It overwhelms
The alarms...

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Trepidation
Meandering through parallel dreams
Sunlight reflecting off sheer cliff
Stonewalled direction of ever river
Flowing onward through time.

Thumbnail scrapes old paint
Where generations of varsol coffee cups
Loosen the hold easily
Bubble and peel
Ripped vinyl booth bench
Duct taped
In true Canadian style.
Grey....

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Should I crawl
Craven with some filigree foot
Hidden forever
In the shadows of my own 
Innocuous phantom

To spend the hours
Amongst the esteem of cement and parchment
Courting the grains of sand
Clinging to the befuddled moss
And wondering on the...

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A small cameo rests inside a velvet-lined chest
Its latch broken, there’s a faded picture inside,
A thumbnail-sized sketch of her handsome best
Has rested inside it since Great-Grandpa died.
Her cameo’s been treasured through the years
Passed through generations...

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I didn’t pick this pixelated hue,
Blind browser of flesh, what’s wrong with you?
Am I just a bug—some system glitch?
Or a firestorm code you can’t enrich?

You see a low-res thumbnail, tagged and filed,
But my spirit runs...

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Ladder Rung One 
Ladder Rung One 
Tom Thumb and Thumbelina and baby thumbnail 
Tom is starting now to speak: 
   “listen to me Thumbelina baby {thumbnail} ewe listen tewe 
This old world has...

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Glass eye, opaque and quizzical,
staring up from the creel.
A question escapes as a squeak,
when picked up by the belly
and held firmly in one hand,
as the other hand inserts the knife at the
anus and slides it...

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she was an icon
the first time i saw her
looking back over one bare shoulder
the small photograph illustrating her in muted colors
thumbnail image of perfect harmonies
her name emblazoned in small type
but great things come from such...

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it comes upon me 

like the invasion of evening shadows

when silence surrounds me 

and i realize i am alone with myself

and know i am poor company indeed

 

it comes as winds knife 

through the ribs...

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Hardware 
to spare 

Software 
quite bare

Firmware
full glare 

Upload
bug sowed

Download 
smart code 

Cursor
fervour

Cyber
fibre

Password 
absurd 

Hard disc
at risk 

windows
hellos

Wide screen
green scene

Hotspot
jackpot

Screen shot
rogue bot

Desktop
nonstop

Thumbnail 
all hail 

Clipart
from heart

Browser
dowser

Broadband
grandstand

Toolbar
gold star 

Macro 
steals show 

Micro 
back row

Wizard 
not hard 

Rich...

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I ran the blade under my thumbnail,
scouring dirt with the tip,
and stared aimlessly at the street.
Switchblade thoughts clicking,
metronomic stilettos on wet paving,
drawing closer.
In this sleeping wakefulness,
this illusion of life,
she never arrives;
waiting, as you do, for...

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