Long Victories Poems

Poems about Fathers and Grandfathers III




Success
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

We need our children to keep us humble
between toast and marmalade;

there is no time for a ticker-tape parade
before bed, no award, no bright statuette

to be delivered...

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The problem of military reactions
to territorial control issues
is not merely that violence breeds further strategic development
of violence,
although this is no small,
nor amoral, 
concern.

This primal problem of militarism by historic default
is that it is an intrinsically...

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Poems about Children IV

Salat Days
by Michael R. Burch

Dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Paul Ray Burch, Sr.

I remember how my grandfather used to pick poke salat ...
though first, usually, he’d stretch back in the...

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Nowhere Else To Go

Welcome to Israel: Land of Hope.1
(The land of Zion and Jerusalem.)2
Where prophets walked and prophesied,
For their God, our God:
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.3

And the Lord spoke to Abram, and he...

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Red light, the neon beer sign on the distant wall reflects off the long expanse of polished bar top, overpowering the quiet brown wood. It’s after lunch, only a few people in to stir the...

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.                          NOW

Well, GI Jack is welcome back, he left his...

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In the realm of moons and breathless tides,
where promises dance with a serendipitous sonnet of sunrises,
along with morning kisses, unfolds a love story—
a poetic novel etched in the chronicles
within the hourglass of time,
a journey that...

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He was born in backwoods Missouri.
1840 the year he arrived.
Conflict, sickness and hard times prevailed.
Through it all he grew strong and survived.
Skills to live were a gift from his father.
Faith in God from his mother...

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Sister
Love your brother ALWAYS

If you are older, hold your brother’s hand;
If you’re the same age as he;
Stay within his and God’s plans
Allow him a hand to hold, 
a shoulder to lean on, 
And an ear...

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Femme Fatale By A Wishing Well 
  (In The Wastelands Of War)

Warm as breath on placid skin,
Soft as gentle summer rains,
Loud as natures angry clouds
That gather in ambushed lanes,
To confer with the wounded boys
Whose...

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The hearts of white men are silently fuming
The spirits of  angry widows steadily   grow bitter 
The bosoms of weeping mothers  open wide
While the relics of the past kept washing upon our...

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Power to condemn others, and oneself,
is weaker than power to help others, as oneself.

Power to destroy others, and oneself,
is lesser than power to regenerate others, and oneself, 
interdependently.

Powers of fear and anger management,
with terrifying consequences...

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Life is not cricket: though a game of cricket reflects life 
It portrays real-life conditions; from cradle to urn 
Starting with toss of a coin; ends in pulling bails off
Just as cricket life is simply...

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So I was feeling badly,
sad,
because I share our mutually complicit status
for my compatriot's difficult terrorizing
chronic stress disordering
time.
I too have been there,
lost there,
to a more moderate extent.
I just walked away.

I wish I had done more at...

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Young and Strong

She was young, she was strong
Working cleaning all the day long
So much to do, but she carried that load
So concerned about everyone, at Kenmore road.

Then we moved, to Strandfontein we came
A new challenge...

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Choices my dear one,
So many choices, 
So few voices,
Some near,
Some far,
Some to fear.

A path.
Clear and chosen.  
The erasure of a closing.
The logos of math.
The trajectory of wrath.
The conciliatory legislation blindly ruling the cosmos of...

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C.O.M.S

Colors
Black, brown

Something that has been an issue since the beginning of time

Colors unite 
Colors causes actions out of spite
Colors are all different shades
Colors has been one of the leading causes of death for decades

See i...

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I grow increasingly challenged
to discern where my innocent thoughts
hopes and fears
challenges and victories begin
where others more wisely end.

I feel wrong to publish thoughts
under just my name
built on shoulders,
plodding feet,
sleight of hands
and great transitional feats
reminding me...

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Pittsburgh, hammertown, Chuck Knoll and his boys
established the best Superbowl Era dynasty
with the "Steel Curtain" defense and the "Blonde Bomber" Bradshaw,
a defense disciplined on shrapnel and elite ego,
"Mean Joe Greene" and Jack Lambert, a compulsive...

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The Rulers wield their silver shields,
             wear golden coronets
while warders guard the prison yard,
         ...

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Diary Notes: Lamentable laissez-faire

                     …the lêche cul is
back
       ...

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The personal is political and I take the political quite personal

and please do not get me wrong because I am not one to moan

for only those taking responsibility themselves should be allowed

to criticize what the...

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Wake up and rush for the toilet and say my prayers

 Stomach races trying to catch up to the bowels emptying anxious

Chemo the man said it takes a bit to get used to and I’ll...

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I'm here to clarify 
My passions that I never defy 
Prescriptions of my essence
My drug is my vibe 
Addictions to what I do 
No cure to my being true 
My body is vacant of disease...

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Displaced or Repositioned

You know that it happens to others but, not to you but, it did!  Twenty years
of your life gone, you’re left alone with your children.  You’ve never worked outside of your...

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