Long Uncross Poems

Where Does the Butterfly Go?
by Michael R. Burch

for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba

Where does the butterfly go
when lightning rails,
when thunder howls,
when hailstones scream,
when winter scowls,
when nights compound dark frosts with snow ...
Where...

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Juvenilia: Early Poems IX

These are early poems of mine, written in my teens as a high school student and during my first two years of college.

Shock
by Michael R. Burch

It was early in the morning of...

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I saw a cat quartet within my dodgy dream,
Sorta started worryin' that I'd gone off the beam,
Really began to wonder if my mind was gettin' weak,
They had their own language that only they could speak.

While...

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- and, anyway, who breaks wind over double-M, a. k. a. Manson,

Marilyn?

I'll give a ride on my razor any day to

The-Second-Prime-of-Nine-to-the-Sixth,

who was around long before CD's, DVD's, MTV, and YOU / MYtube,

spitting out the healing...

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Fulcrum 

Listen to me sweetheart.
It is easy to be a fool.
It requires no intelligence at all.
You will always listen to those who speak
Words you personally want to hear.
You will always ignore and belittle those
Who disagree...

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Burn, Ovid
by Michael R. Burch

“Burn Ovid”—Austin Clarke

Sunday School,
Faith Free Will Baptist, 1973:
I sat imagining watery folds
of pale silk encircling her waist.
Explicit sex was the day’s “hot” topic
(how breathlessly I imagined hers)
as she taught us the...

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A period here. a question mark there?
A handful of commas,,,tossed in the air
To fall all willy-nilly but he doesn't care.
Then he closes his eyes so he never sees,
And does it again with apostrophe's.

Next colons: and...

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The room was unusually dark that tinny night,
As music and laughter replaced the light,
Toasts were given for proud glories earned,
As horrors of war exploded and burned.

My warrior father, the subject of such great acclaim,
My worrier...

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I hate it that you leave me hanging
sat waiting for a word or smile
I tell myself you mean nothing to me
but I've crossed my fingers as I wait awhile

I pace the room with indifferance
pretending not...

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1.A, cardinal of alphabets
deity is pre-eminent.
2.What use thou learned?
unless venerating divine
3.Captives of his flower-heart
long live on earth.
4.Devotee of fair nature
never faces hazard.
5.Admirers of nature never
suffer ignorant fatalism.
6.Self controlling of sense
organs, long live.
7.Critics of unique divine
suffer...

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1.Virtue does not-kill; committing 
yields other sins.
2.Sharing, guarding, available bread,
succeeds collected wisdom.
3.Better not-slaying first,unique
truthfulness comes next.
4.Holy-books’ right path, unthinking
virtuous not-kill beings.
5.Among feared renounced, fearing
not-killing is supreme.
6.Devouring-death uncross life-days of
followers of not-killing.
7.Never kill to save
thy loose...

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Uncross your eyes and stop thinking about it they told you in third grade  but you did not cry you had a faster mind  to stop and think about that running sneaker across...

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Your eggrolls aren't dry.
Your eggrolls aren't wet.
You say they're just right.
like it's some sort of threat.

You hand me an eggroll
along with a plum sauce.
I can tell you're still mad
as your eyes start to uncross.

This time...

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