Long Topples Poems

FEAR NOT THE BULLET HOLES LEFT INSIDE MY LARGE  PLANTS AS MY NEIGHBOR ENJOY DRINKING A COLD BEER SITTING WITH HIS DOG LICK WAITING ON A TIME TO KILL I CALLED THEM MY JAN...

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Dr. Zebediah Killgrave, male, human species, 5'11', normal weight.
born in Rejeka, Croatia, charismatic, a physician turned international spy. 
On a mission to infiltrate a chemical factory, he is doused with an unknown
chemical (pheromones) that...

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{"It’s 4:05 pm, darkness is mending over the horizon, the city, I’m fighting and thrashing against the flames that shroud. With secrets yet to resign, they dwindle at nightly dusk as it topples over. 
Down...

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Unlikely Mike
by Michael R. Burch

I married someone else’s fantasy;
she admired me despite my mutilations.

I loved her for her heart’s sake, and for mine.
I hid my face and changed its connotations.

And in the dark I danced—slight,...

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Part One

GOU - Hexagram 44: One powerful Yin encounters or comes to meet the Yang in the Sixth month of the Gregorian Calendar, on the Sixth of June onwards – having associated with five (meaning...

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Most imp potent and salient playbook page...
'bout fluffiness of hair after washing

Now get ready for...
yup intelligent persiflage
determining if potty "talk" gauge
correctly calibrated courtesy this sage.

Beats out global warming
by a long stretch
most important commander
must set example...

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Written: April 14, 2025  for contest sponsored by Brian Strand

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The subject matter of this poem explores themes of transience, intersection of life and death, and the fragile coexistence of...

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A game of musical chairs has just begun in earnest. A pot and kettle band arrives 
through the dining rooms’ French doors following the Valentine Queen. A putrid pink 
flamingo with a croquet ball stuck...

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Matsuo Basho: English translations of Haiku about winter, cold, rain, rains, frost, frosts, snow, snowflakes, wind, children, childhood, hail, hail stones, winter life. 

Mushroom-gathering,
rushing to beat
cold evening rains.
—Matsuo Basho, translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Ceremonious
hailstones
assail my...

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I'm searching for a poetry that’s a hotbed of immense danger,
A spell that unleashes deep fear into every soul.
I want poetry that shakes the universe of old ideas,
Banned in bookstores, sites, and antique shops.
My poetry...

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These holidays, like a whirlwind romance…can’t catch my breath. Hustle and bustle of parties and gifts. Figuring it all out, the list, counting it at least twice. Birthday parties piled up, tissue paper scattered like...

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The proverbial all pervading calm and inner peace,
Stability is what we choose to call it- to earn greens,
To eat them, to share it or to control it. So escapable
Yet, always avoided. The veil of contentment...

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7/3/2018
A waxing crescent moon shed a sliver of mystified light on the silhouette of the lonely shadow of a woman. 

She sat cross legged on a chunk of hard Earth overlooking a circular abyss of...

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## I
Eleven, Tehran's burning heat—
sleeve rolled high against the summer's weight,
the Revolutionary Guard's fist finds my face
like a question mark carved in flesh.
A G3 rifle barrel cold against my cheek,
the hammer clicks, a seed of...

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The cauldron bubbles
With blackest of black
Boiling over the rim 
Thick and tar-like liquid
As putrid fumes fill the air
It gags you, chokes you
Making you wonder
What is IN that
And you look around to find
A rotted, termite infested...

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I am a woman, and at dawn, I weave wings of light from threads of dreams,
I step on paths of desires, wearing ribbons of living hope in my hair,
I wonder how many stories will cling...

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Diet
 
The thin man held no answer 
he bent and swayed
struggling to focus through the last mirage of water
remorseless thoughts rolling unrelenting tornadoes
through his shrunken heart and wispy head
settling an empty groan in discomfort on...

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"A Conversation with Aenesidemus"

all perceptions are relative 
and interact 
one upon another 

take a coin
stand it vertical
spin it

gravity does that
it’s one way or the other
there is no in between 

middle roads

even when you hold it
steady...

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 Before her glassy eyes, crystal bubbles seem 
to strangely dance.  
Slipping down into the water as deeply as she  can, 
she revels in the liquid warmth enwrapping her.  
Such contrast this...

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Wriggling my way
    across the page
    I thrash about,
lost by perspective and
    challenged to
    summon only
    significant
passions expressing clarity 
    of struggle.

The knowing face of
    immortality proffers
    gracious wisdom
from antiqued parchments to
    reassert with
    fervent hope
more than just meter or instinct
    until I find

Ezra Pound in...

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I live for vacant white nights:
devoid of stars and ocean hues,
a loose-leaf tainted ivory sky
that's just a whisper short of true.

Life's metronomic father points
his stale batons toward my mind,
though only to be broken down;
alone, I...

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When I was young I loved opening a new box of dominoes from the store
and setting them up in different patterns all across the floor.

After setting up every domino in the box…every domino…one and all…
I’d...

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There is a stately tree that stands proudly in the park.
Every day another chip is taken from its protective bark.
Days goes by, weeks, months, even years,
As the sound of the axe falls on closed, deafened...

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THIRST COMES FIRST

The year 2035,
The queue two thousand long,
Could the old survive,
And be strong,
Could the young stand
Enough before their little
Legs caved in whilst holding
Dad’s hand,
Who already had a baby
In the other arm, 
And mom pregnant,...

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friendless hardship & the apologies thereafter

“rains when it pours,”
oh how sweet the wreck 
topples down the mountain to
crash out into a million
burning pieces---
if one has someone beside them,
there is a lens that glows
(and one’s sight...

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