Long Undid Poems

Sonnets LXI-LXX

Erin
by Michael R. Burch

All that’s left of Ireland is her hair?
bright carrot?and her milkmaid-pallid skin,

her brilliant air of cavalier despair,
her train of children?some conceived in sin,

the others to avoid it. For nowhere
is evidence of...

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Alexander The Great was born in Macedonia in 356 BC, led to believe
From a boy by Olympias his mother, and to conceive
He was born of the gods, legend inferred he was the son of Zeus,
Ruler...

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It was a late Saturday morning, and I was getting my 12-year-old self ready for our weekly summer sand-lot baseball game. I had my ball glove hanging on my bicycle handlebars, two baseballs, and my...

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Written in summer of 1976.


I used to eat my lunch with groups
of businessmen from Campbell Soups.

We drank a drink at lunch each day
Of Coca-Cola mixed with hay

And talked of pending corporate plans
And willow-haired orangutans.

I spent...

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Translation of Oothukkadu Venkata Subba Iyer (circa 1700-1765)’s « THAYE YASHODA » by T. Wignesan


This devotional song and poem in Tamil (the principal Dravidian language which has spawned over twenty languages in the southern Indian...

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'Twas a sound I thought alarming, most assuredly disarming;
Up I rose from peaceful slumber to discern what it might be.
While my candle flickered, wavered; whilst my heartbeat halted, quavered,
At my window I was favoured by...

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A Princess sat on her throne in despair whilst her father bellowed “is there a handsome prince out there?” 

“We have waited so long, as a matter of fact, I don’t care how he looks...

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She woke to find herself on the floor of a cabin,

The cabin was bare dark and damp

She felt queasy and uneasy as if waking from being drugged,

She was wearing boots, tight leather shorts and a...

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Poems about Poets IV



The Princess and the Pauper
by Michael R. Burch

for June Kraeft

Here was a woman bright, intent on life,
who did not flinch from Death, but caught his eye
and drew him, powerless, into her spell
of...

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The moving finger writes and having writ
moves on. And that's the bitter core of it.

So did you scheme to mold we are so base,
like you're disgusted in the human race?

And was it the mirror that...

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Henry Morgan was an admiral of the Royal Navy
In his time, commissioned, but most found him crazy
Such that the Spanish called him a pirate rebellious
Whilst he considered himself with the truth not hazy

He took Campeche...

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The white statue rested above the dying woman's head,
A ray of light shone thinly onto the old talisman.
Carter watched silently at the old gaunt wrinkled woman.
He would be brave, prepare his last rites, 
For he...

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I remember you holding me in your arms
Rocking me gently while singing lullabies

I remember when you lived a short walk away
Relatives were local and get-togethers were the norm
I remember your amazing purple mohair sweater
You knit...

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If you’ve been to north New York,
or the western side of Vermont,
you might’ve head of a sea monster,
the vast Lake Champlain is his haunt.

The locals all call him ‘Champy,’
not to dissimilar to Loch Ness,
many folks...

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A day in my life
I thought to help the wife
I got the vacuum out
A little run about
I plugged it in the wall
Odd, no sound at all
It must have blown a fuse
So I undid all the...

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She is the scarlet woman
Accused and tried
Made to wear shame as a veil
To be prejudiced by the society
Somehow I wonder if soceity is wrong
She is a whore, an adultress 
A witch who deserves no pity...

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Who am I to know that
the existence of heaven lives
in the pause between breaths
or that the story of creation is
a searing scar in the side of Jesus?

I have collected my pleasures,
like monsoons collect the dead,
have...

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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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As from his Book of Rules He read,
“Tsk-tsk tsk-tsk, St. Peter said.

So PICKED up I my bags and left
For that damnéd lower cleft.

I stomped away then turned and paused.
How much fuss had my fib caused?

A...

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I drew closer as the angel whispered,
'Come and you shall behold!'
I saw a book with an inlaid cover of precious stones,
And embossed in purest gold.

As he spoke, he turned around,
Placing a crystal key within my...

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A rewrite.

It's been a long cold dark lonely winter
Since you went away
I live in limbo
And torture myself every single day
The sun used to shine my way
But now turns the other way
A shadow of my former...

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He was a silver tongued devil from New Orleans
Carried a new deck of cards in a locked brief case
He came up to Texas in a pair of pressed jeans
With a stiff demeanor they called a...

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 As an orange sun sets in the west
Silhouetting the trees
Flashes of orange and bright, bright white
Sights eyes can not believe

What were those flashes of orange
And white so clean and bright
Curiosity got my interest
And covered...

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In her room decorated like a princess’s, she sat quietly on the floor.
Carefully wrapping a small gold box and keeping an eye on the door. 
She twirled the silver ribbons and tied it on the...

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You told me I was pretty
That I was worth something.
Then-
My world fell apart,
I fell apart.
You undid me with your silence.
unraveling for days,
weeks,
months.

What did I do?
I tried to swallow 
my anger and fury 
Like a pill,
But...

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