Long Ulcers Poems

The words are dark, sharp,vicious, viscous.
The images like bubbling, darkest jam,
With bubble like grim faces riding to the surface
Then bursting.
I am thirsting.Alternately with blood and bile,black.
I am a sad sack,
A pillow filled with rotten meat
For...

Read More

Nothing to hide*, Translation of a poem: “A coeur ouvert” by (René) Etiemble

		For Jeannine

(Later in life, Etiemble suppressed his first name, ostensibly on account of the accented “é”
 ending his first name and preceding the...

Read More

Part 1

One summer in our youth group was a boy
I met.  How I would love to understand
if what he’d felt was equal to the joy
that bloomed in me when he caressed my hand.

His elfin...

Read More

Speak!
by Faiz Ahmad Faiz
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Speak, while your lips are still free.
Speak, while your tongue remains yours.
Speak, while you're still standing upright.
Speak, while your spirit has force.

See how, in the bright-sparking forge,...

Read More

It was hard before but now am used
I remember when i first came here
Dad had slept forever 
Mum was hidden in the grave
Enjoying sleep as uncle chose
To rape me daily
Aunt would force me to feed...

Read More

She said that this man, my grandfather,
held her head under the black pool water,
while up above, a German man leaned
out of his window, against the moss and brick
to scream violently: "Don't hurt that woman!
She is...

Read More

When I was around 14, I attended a church youth conference that summer, 
sleeping in a dorm at a college campus and attending fun events with kids of my 
same religion. The group I was...

Read More

“On the day that you were born, the angels got together and decided to create a dream come true, so they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold and starlight in your eyes of...

Read More

Dear exam
Sincerely I don’t hate you, I just don’t like you
To be fair, I don’t think anybody does
You issue countless threats in the name of tests
A series of poison in carefully measured dosage
Administered by well-trained...

Read More

I think we should have a
World Sex Day
A universal energy release to
cure Mother Earth
All we do is probe her
private parts
With drilling machines,
bombs and nuclear waste
And leave her on heat
Dissatisfied
Unloved
We leave her oozing with
acidic rain and...

Read More

I have learned so much from you--
I have learned that even with a broken heart time passes, 
I have learned even when you think tomorrow will never come-- 
the sun shines letting you know that...

Read More

I couldn't be much happier than the day you left me
I can go back to being miserable and lonely
It is much more enjoyable doing this by myself
No more stomach ulcers, you leaving me has improved...

Read More

Consultation Room


Our organs we disdain
Until we have some pain
Then begin to learn
Let organs respect earn!

There’s this red “bean”
Fond of giving a spleen
Pith can suffer “cones”
They call kidney stones.

Maligned cirrhotic livers
Afflict with painful fevers
You may relish...

Read More

Before we met
My mind was set
On a female pet  
As I sat on the ground
Among roughhousing puppies all around
Hoping that I would be found

Soon, I noticed, off to the side
Staring at me with dark...

Read More

Oh, how we are poisoned!
The Yonega, the Wasichu, 
a new creature, 
different from us in more than just their 
white skin and sunflower hair.
 How did such a people come
 across the great waters?

They come...

Read More

First started with an attention disorder.
Then the medication started...and escalated.
Fixed my behavior, but not my grade.
It wasn't good enough for them.
So higher the dosage, the lower my personality.
Soon I had no personality, and I was...

Read More

What I think the Lord’s alphabet would be’

This is the way I see the Lord’s Alphabet:
So with rhyme, here I go, let’s see what we get?

A-	For awesome Spiritual power.
B-	For break through, His coming hour.
C-	For Compassion,...

Read More

“I have forgiven mother”
She tarries with hope
that the good woman will pray her clemency for her own sins, 
but that hour is expired; 
Gee grew a strong wit
"Mother is no longer my burden"
Jesus came from...

Read More

Weekly this sorry procession
rolls out a parade of wannabe
kings and queens,
heirs unapparent to the realms of nothingness.

Girls with elaborate hairdos,
boys drenched in cheap cologne;
drawn to the main drag pubs,
solitary ventilators of the monochrome kingdom.

Factory gates...

Read More

Our dog, Lucky, died on a Thursday.
I decided I could be sad for years,
for months, for a week, or for hours.
So what would alleviate this utter despair  
and sadness?
A new dog, of course.
I searched...

Read More

People never seem to listen to what i have to say
Just brush it off their shoulder interrupting all the way      
In a disagreement everyone is guilty of pride
You say what...

Read More

Fig tree fruit...fig tree fruit...fig tree fruit
Eaten by toddlers...fig tree fruit!
Gave elders stomach ulcers

Be careful for this is a fishing bridge
Elders warned...
Play not here lest you tumble into the river and drawn
Adamant!....the fig tree fruit

Birds...

Read More

Somewhere in the woods, was born a lazy Bancy,
Born to be a winner, hope surrounding her life,
Her life was much a drama, laziness was her banner,
School work was not her choice, learning wasn’t her base,
Exams...

Read More

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE

Imagine open heart surgery,
imagine no blood used.
Triple bypass, just beginning,
blood later … still refused.

Previous surgeries had several,
but this one was near death.
One day ok, then shocking news,
that took away … my breath.

Doctor, ok’d no...

Read More

Thanks for the mood this world put me in.
 Thanks for the wars, the corruption, and sin.
 Thanks for collapsing the market with greed.
 Thanks for the stress... for the ulcers that bleed.

Thanks for pretending...

Read More