Long Tightens Poems

The weight of the water is heavy in my chest, a force pressing against the ribs. It rises when I don’t expect it, like a flood breaking through cracked, neglected seams. The truck of my...

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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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That color vileness painted on my face
When coming back my duke to me I saw 
His new squeezing inside much more took place.

He heedful stopped as man hearing to draw;
Because his eye could not reach...

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So cramped ...
Strain to move,
Flex and budge in tiny increments ...
That's the limit.
Constantly testing, trying,
Pushing, pressing ...
Constrict, exert, constrict, struggle,
Spin slowly, push ...
That's it. That's all.
Nothing more.
But it helps ... relief,
A body sigh ...
But only...

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Love has a Southern flavor: honeydew,
ripe cantaloupe, the honeysuckle’s spout
we tilt to basking faces to breathe out
the ordinary, and inhale perfume ...

Love’s Dixieland-rambunctious: tangled vines,
wild clematis, the gold-brocaded leaves
that will not keep their order in...

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Even today your distance
is bringing out the doubts
that I buried yesterday
in a mysterious place...
not to let them discover
by anyone, but feeling the guilt
tightens my throat;
it's reliving painful memories
that make us regret
the most loving hugs!

By bringing...

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Over harvested fields —

I walk beneath the fading afterglow
of a forgotten lantern   a path worn
by wanderers older than the scroll of Zeno
its damp salve seeping through my coat
into my bones

Fog an Erebian curtain...

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From my Blog:
Of Byron, Keats And Shelley, A Few Words

(1.)

Of Byron And A Visit I Once Had

Alas! Youth and its joy away has flown
I wake at the break of day with a groan
the smooth mirror...

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She is not with me. I can write the saddest verses tonight.
I write, for example: "The night is starry" and the stars shiver, in the distance, and thousands of echoes of silent desires
Find shelter under...

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Night one on the new river, the campfire is spirited
and the future appears hospitable,
everyone has their rations, everybody is resting their pride
for on an expedition epic to each man and for a republic as well
souls...

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Sometimes he’s next to me. Close enough that the air feels different, like something charged is sitting between us. My stomach does that thing, tightens, flutters, not because I like him, not like that. It’s...

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In the realm of existence, where time unfolds,
A tale of wonder, in verses untold.
A symphony of life, in hues of vast,
A saga of futures, present, and past.

From the womb of chaos, creation springs,
With every heartbeat,...

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In '48, a state was born, 
But for Palestine, a time to mourn. 
Nakba came, with lands displaced, 
A people scattered, dreams erased.
In '67, the war did rage, 
West Bank, Gaza, a new stage. 
Occupied...

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Written: February 22, 2025, for contest Sponsored by: Sara Jama

                         ...

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Sturdy oak creaks as my weight shifts, hands tangling in my hair.  

My chair scrapes hardwood as I begin to pace. 

Processing... Processing...

The flickering lamp casts strange shadows on the walls. 

I sit back...

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Do you remember the promise you promised to keep 

The words that tied me so tightly to you that I couldn't breathe didn't want to breathe

Didn’t want to taste that freedom that might tempt me...

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(Begin: There is no beginning.)

(O' my--not again--you should not have started.)

 The quill burrows. No--splinters. No--fractures. No--was never here.
 
Ink spills--no--veins spill--no--veins collapse--no--veins rewrite.

The vowels--black-lipped--no--the ink coagulates--the ink tightens--the ink breathes-

acrid, metallic, it stings the...

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Broken and bruised with intentions sure pure I calm myself down quickly before the 
tears pour once more a trail down my face one lands on my heart I laugh at the 
irony not knowing...

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each gleaming candle with it's yellow glow, surrounds her beauty like an aura. Her 
eyes are like a cats..sparkling with curiousity and wonder as she swirls in her dress 
skirts around her chamber. I feel...

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An elastic band
Held between two fingers.
His index, and mine.
He takes a few steps backwards,
Gently stretching the fragile ring between us,
Testing its strength from either direction.
Two forces, working together
And against each other, at the same time.

The...

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Employment quest sought December 11th, 2021

Across cyberspace,
the following epistle
yours truly (me) doth lob
as the figurative pressure
tightens on the virtual knob,
I would moost certainly benefit
from a part time job
hence this rather goofy atypical reply
crafted (at initial
ten...

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Your eyes were locked on target, looking beyond what you saw into the unknown, (me) and as you stared at me, I felt like everyone of my last thoughts you owned.
As you sat there..i could...

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Against the backdrop of a leaden sky, where dreams lie shattered,
Beneath the heavy burden of pain, with echoes in sacred silences,
I lay down verses at dusk, where words are lost to the wind,
A saga of...

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Sleep, those putrid portions of decay,
wither away at my conscience,
and nudge my crusted eyes open,
to the pain of daylight usurping the drape.

Legs slump, feet thud the carpet,
to another unwelcome day,
how many times will I have...

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Rubrikain!

My chest tightens as I find myself without an umbrella. The wind in my face is refreshing. 

My hands are cold and I'm holding them on my chest as if I'm desperately trying to draw...

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