Long Unwarranted Poems

Pagans Protest the Intolerance of Christianity
by Michael R. Burch

“We have a common sky.” — Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

We had a common sky
before the Christians came.

We thought there might be gods
but did not know their names.

The common...

Read More

the Horror
by Michael R. Burch

the Horror lurks inside our closets
the Horror hides beneath our beds
the Horror hisses ancient curses
the Horror whispers in our heads

the Horror tells us Death is coming
the Horror tells us there’s no...

Read More

Various Heresies 4

I, Lazarus
by Michael R. Burch

I, Lazarus, without a heart,
devoid of blood and spiritless,
lay in the darkness, meritless:
my corpse?a thing cold, dead, apart.

But then I thought I heard?a Voice,
a Voice that called me from...

Read More

Every Day You Play
by Pablo Neruda
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Every day you play with Infinity’s rays.
Exquisite visitor, you arrive with the flowers and the water.
You are vastly more than this immaculate head I clasp...

Read More

"The Beetlejuice Past Your Eyes"


“Well, where would you suggest I commence? Should we begin with the concept of pasteurize?”

This said to the earnest listener, who views the protagonist with a bon vivant confused expression. To...

Read More

Various Heresies 6

Altared Spots
by Michael R. Burch

The mother leopard buries her cub,
then cries three nights for his bones to rise
clad in new flesh, to celebrate the sunrise.

Good mother leopard, pensive thought
and fiercest love’s wild insurrection
yield...

Read More

Completing the Pattern
by Michael R. Burch

Walk with me now, among the transfixed dead
who kept life’s compact and who thus endure
harsh sentence here?among pink-petaled beds
and manicured green lawns. The sky’s azure,
pale blue once like their eyes,...

Read More

Something strange

and unexplainable comes this way,
this way, it comes to us sly and fast, 
some say, perhaps, 
it has already arrived, 
it walks unseen, in the midst of all, of us 

we go about our...

Read More

The Undertow


The two could feel the undertow
Pull at them both - then let them go
He wondered if she could know
Or sense it too and let it flow

The undertow in the fast-running tide
Ebbed and flowed at...

Read More

‘WHITE COLUMN RESSURRECTION’

Even now you stand poised with memories of a corned cobbed pipe in one hand-tight gripped lapel in the other-perched against thick southern charmed columns positioned on a once so powerful veranda .

Peering...

Read More

By Stanley Collymore

At first I wasn’t in the least interested in you. 
But then, why should I be? You, after all, 
are an unmarried and out-of-work mum 
just turned 23 and, additionally and 
quite evidently...

Read More

[Every good story needs a sub plot, so…]

He watched from his vantage point on the bank’s roof
And looked out for folk that he knew were uncouth
His years on the run had made him aloof
But soon...

Read More

Figurines


Lace up your shoes
Wear your black hoodie 
And your Timberland’s, too
You’ll never know what ‘ll happen to you 
Or where you’ll end up
On your way home 

Your ancestors have walked this land
In shackles and in...

Read More

Why? should I believe in 
Where is he can't see him
Where is he no one loves me
I am hurting why won't he stop the pain
I don't believe in him this god or your jesus
Why cause...

Read More

I WAS PURSUING A CAREER IN  DENTAL AND ORAL SURGERY
NEVER THOUGHT  THE WAR WOULD LEAVE A FATAL MARK ON ME
THE  SECOND YEAR OF STUDY CONSISTED OF FIELD REVIEWS
OF THE DENTAL CONDITIONS OF...

Read More

Ain't it wild the things that have passed?
The things we thought would change,
the things we thought weren't gonna last?

(remember picnics on the park grass?
that was awesome)

Movies with friends, weddings on the sand,
rock and roll concerts...

Read More

"The Golden Chord"

I have stories
caterwauling
to be told,
I will caste them out there
no matter how bold.

They will not drown,
they’ll survive
soaked to the bone,
transfigured transporting
they’re magic
for the one who sits absent
on her Royal Throne.

Some are parked on...

Read More

The robbery of the soul...
The trampling of boundaries 
like a frenzied stampede of 
elephants..
The cutting of ties that bound 
us with reckless abandon.
 Emblazoned with it's name, 
PRIDE, across the blade,  
It's a slash...

Read More

Come, You
by Rainer Maria Rilke
translation by Michael R. Burch

Come, you—the last one I acknowledge; return—
incurable pain searing this physical mesh.
As I burned in the spirit once, so now I burn
with you; meanwhile, you consume my...

Read More

Liebes-Lied (“Love Song”)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

How can I withhold my soul so that it doesn’t touch yours?
How can I lift mine gently to higher things, alone?
Oh, I would gladly find...

Read More

Currently there are seven Democrats and one Republican that are making anti-Semitic comments against the nation of Israel. On the floor of the House of Representatives! Only the Democratic Jewish Representative from the blue State...

Read More

When my first Grandchild was born I loved
him from word go.I arranged my work schedule so that I could keep him when his mother returned
to work.I would arrive about a quarter to eight to his...

Read More

My Friend

My friend; I believe we should define our relationship
So that we would not conflict our feelings for what is not
And would not give our feelings to lustful thoughts
About each other to one another
So that...

Read More

Slow Bullet - Karma 

Ever wondered why things come back, 
Returning with such abject force 
And strange yet ominous impact? 
To gnaw and bite and even kill, 
Our ill conceived deeds though do, 
Appear yet...

Read More

Firearms magazine offer manifold big bang for their buck, 
many ear rational per son or daughter loves advocate, the late chuck 
heston (now a shooting star occasionally visiting Earth from celestial vault) 
  ...

Read More