Long Toenails Poems

I don't know what came over me that day - an instant of weakness after years of resistance, I suppose.

My beaming spouse leads me, a dog on a short leash, into the forbidden citadel, the...

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yeah, right ...
do you really think I believe that?
that I'll swallow that pill?
look at the damn lines on this brow ...
do you think they were etched
by happenstance??
not even CLOSE, sweetheart
I earned those ragged rivulets one-by-one
and...

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...and the Demon spoke,
its voice deep and mellow like smooth satiny chocolate,
"There is more, much more than good and evil,"
the words thunderously whispered.
The verdant emerald green of the forest quivering at the sound,
drawing in upon...

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One generic baby boomer, (a garden variety sexagenarian)...
offers his interpretation of critical race theory

I, (an articulate, charming, domesticated, 
erudite, friendly, genteel, humorous, intelligent,
kind, learned, male, albeit modest – married) 
with freshly clipped formerly gnarly toenails
discounts...

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"Dead Crush"



Oh uplift me woman
if we were to have a 
conversation would 
bees fly out of your mouth
or just mewling, simpering 
watered-down honey
not so pristine, just soft
and somewhat 
ingratiatingly tainted
you ply uplifting
romantic notions
like an air...

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November second two thousand twenty two...
abuzz with Autumnal thrum

Approximately six weeks since August sum
er re: lazy dog days witnessed lolling about 
sipping cocktails, whose primary ingredient rum
pulled and sated esophageal tract nsync 
with thirstily quaffing...

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It’s Harvard VS Yale this weekend, the vibes are just starting now. Everyone - and I mean everyone - has been asking about my game tickets, because guest tickets are $25 a pop. I’m more...

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THE BOW LEG-GED GIRL
I took all of your tank tops and your hose and your sox,
and I put them all together in a little brown box.
I put all of your dresses and your shoes in...

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You squealed with six-year-old delight as I wriggled from Hilda’s belly. 
I was a runt, the first of five pups who, with our eyes closed, all squirmed for lunch at the same time.

You screamed with...

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THE BOW LEGGED GIRL
I took all of your tank tops and your hose and your sox,
and I put them all together in a little brown box.
I put all of your dresses and your shoes in...

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CAUGHT IN THE REIGN

“am i a real princess?” she articulates.
the painting, on her canvas nails, pains her.
firm fountain of toenails are just fine.
shrugs, “who knows why!?”
her lashes, feel the flecks, of mascara.
her skin itches at...

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Like a present long waited for that is sealed
I’m in and out of love and don’t know how to feel
Although my love life has come to a yield
Now is the time to harvest the fresh...

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Once on a yellow piece of paper w/green lines
he wrote a poem
And he called it "Chops"
because that was the name of his dog
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A...

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Twenty-three chromosomes from my mother
Twenty-three chromosomes from my father
Already, I feel loved
Three weeks now and my heart is beating
My blood is pumping
My brain is dividing into three primary sections
Already, I am alive
Four weeks now and...

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"50 Words for Poe: Styx"




Sleep now

Your Nepenthe has been taken
listen to your dream 
what you pay alms for
requires surveillance
this is where she is reached and seen
in her dreams she dreams within your dream

He whistles in...

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I just made it in time for Mary's funeral, it had been raining
heavily all day but the sun came out through the clouds.
And as I watched her coffin being lowered into the ground,
I was filled...

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It’s in the rows of old oaks
                the pothole that was never filled,
       ...

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My heart will always be expecting good times 
many hearts expect good times
their future lies in expectation of positive futures
there is no substance to save the soul when expectation dies
There are reasons for the break...

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The sow beauty queen’s 
favorite color is money green
The cloven jaw cutie’s
favorite sound is “cha-ching”

Miss Piggy Lips loves how the cash registers
throughout the land constantly rings

That jade oinkment noise
is a pigmentary salve to her greedy...

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MY BOW LEGGED 60's GIRL
    Lyons, Kansas, 1969
I took all of your tank tops and your hose and your sox,
and I put them all together in a little brown box.
I put all...

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My Apologies, Sona
by Gulzar
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

My apologies, Sona,
if traversing my verse's terrain
in these torrential rains
inconvenienced you.

The monsoons are unseasonal here.

My poems' pitfalls are sometimes sodden.
Water often overflows these ditches.
If you stumble and...

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Coffee, it is evident, is not Sherry's cup of tea;
She likes spirits like sherry and brandy
and knows the ropes of winemaking to a tee;
An oenologist by profession, like her pal Brandy,
found her niche in viticulture....

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luckily for our ambiguous plot structure
and the stern requirements of partisan doggerel
the ringing coin toss bounced then came up tails
and fortune directed that the box be opened
gingerly gripped in two slender shaking hands
by Pepper d'Angelo...

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In mania, the body unbinds itself.
The skeleton’s dense marrow becomes hollow,
an avian adjustment. It is accelerated evolution.
Fluttering and floating in a slew of thoughts
like nervous wind chime chatter.

My brother blew in through the rattling gate
accompanied...

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It’s warm and cozy in bed when I detect a cat quietly sauntering in the room.
Up on the bed corner he jumps, and then sits, just staring at me I imagine.
Just a few minutes more...

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