Long Yemen Poems

What Good Are Our Tears?
by Michael R. Burch

What good are our tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is our concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm benevolence...

Read More

Overarching Genocide

Noah built the wooden Ark in his homeland instructed by God
to save his wife three sons and their wives from drowning a life 
raft rescue boat of sorts with three decks and only one...

Read More

SAD Seasonally Affective Disorder

Some are prone to depression in winter when days get shorter when
less light enters the brain through the eyes and thoughts become darker

I am also affected and when news gets explosive when...

Read More

Wishing for 1984

'War is Peace Freedom
is Slavery Ignorance 
is Strength Big Brother…'

is waiting for Godot who came quickly and travelled from Pyongyang to glorious
theoretical impossibility, but wait everything goes and now we are on to...

Read More

6. Softly she sits upon my knee.
I doze and drift as the radio squeaks
Of sunspots and the honeybee.
The cab wind whistles and creeks.
I sense monstrous, hidden beings
Attempting to open forbidden portals
To hideous, evil, inhuman fiends,
Elder...

Read More

Fiddling About. 
by The Didds

Annual Concert, DMT, Time to act, you and me,
At Dauntsey School, a painted floor, performed in the round, 
with rehearsals at Sheep Street church, St Joe's school hall, the con club...

Read More

I like Muslims,
Particularly Yemenis
And Pakistanis (in Yemen)—
With whom, as a university don,
I happened to live for six years. 

Arabic vowels render 
A Yemeni voice gruff.
So even a greeting would   probably
Sound rude to you.

The...

Read More

absolutely nothing stops the pipeline.

 

it penetrates all ways of life

all borders, all villages & towns---

the pipeline kills everything in its path if it dare stand in the way

of its progress---

with black gold funneling back...

Read More

rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land.  Ezekiel 38:12

Q:  What are the modern day names of these nations: Sheba, and Dedan and the
     ...

Read More

pandemoniac incredulity sweeps the fat globe

illusion in disguise and sweet dreams of equality 

the grim reaper measures invincible destruction

finally attempts to be fair at least once in a life time

‘fear not for I am a...

Read More

the water in the teapot is boiling &
the top is rattling---
as the hot steam begins to bubble out
the piercing scream is coming---
14+ million out of work
no universal health insurance
foreclosures upon foreclosures
(just in time for the...

Read More

WEDNESDAY'S VENT

How soon we forget, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan
Over 25 million Chinese in their new lock down plan

All eyes on Ukraine until that too becomes forgotten
And to many children of the world born misbegotten

Where are...

Read More

in a cozy office in the US, 
maybe at langley, or
creech air force base,
north of vegas,
there is an officer watching video 
feeds of suspected targets in
“afghanistan, pakistan, bosnia, serbia, iraq, yemen,
libya & somalia,”
just to name...

Read More

Mohamed Bouazizi,
a poor man
who sold produce from a cart,
in a country bleeding from the open wound of corruption,
got up that morning
expecting to do nothing more
than support his family with the sales he could make
selling his...

Read More

Going Towards the Unknown   

Zabra, a Spanish vessel sailing around Africa to
Yemen by the Red Sea.  A sense of 
xenophilia was felt among the mainland Yemen people on our arrival. They are
worlds...

Read More

oh human rights watch
aren't you tired of watching

the
roasted Yemeni children 
is conscious haunting

an illiterate Emirati pilot
got his finger on the trigger

next to him a Saudi shylock 
in his helmet bragging
my thumb is bigger

the Queen and...

Read More

I am not sure who I will vote for in 2024 for the Presidential 
Election yet. Many like myself, aren't content about a Trump vs Biden rematch. I would like to see a candidate who...

Read More

In the tapestry of turmoil, World War 3 unfolds,
Yemen, America, Palestine—stories of war retold.
Hamas and Israel dance on a contentious stage,
Nations entwined in a conflict that fuels rage.
South Africa intervenes, with a knowing heart,
A history...

Read More

FROM MY ROOF TOP

From my roof top I see the world crumbles
I saw people of mine shout, endlessly
They shout for two common things
They shout for these two alone
Prosperity and democracy
They want an answer and their...

Read More

I think of you every
single day
You're my all, oh
sweetheart
I had the winds
memorize my songs
I always write songs
for the faraway
You're my longing,
passion, cause of
patience
My pen wouldnt write
a name other than
yours
No other name would
be pronounced on
this log
The...

Read More

Wherever I stand,
It will be my holy land!
Wherever I stand,
It will be my holy land,
Listen to what I say,
And read my lips Friend!
The world has dramatically changed,
And became difficult to re-fix or amend!
The world of...

Read More

A letter to Sweden

Every year, I say, Come August, I will travel to Sweden
but when I go to buy a ticket, the price has gone up and
I decide to wait until next year.
Once, I met...

Read More

She placed the small embellished table
Beside the open window igniting its red glow
As the natural light poured through
Spurring witness with exquisite detail
That begged for hands to caress and touch
Its spiritually ornate expression and artful fate

For...

Read More

Sometimes for fun men worship a gun
To shoot a recruit, to vanquish a victim
Whose only fault lies in a bun
The poor nibble in a starving team
 
Barrels and muzzles dominate
In thoughts, actions, deeds and priorities
Held...

Read More

It all began with a man who owns a cart,
And the Tunisian government took it away.
Now a martyr, having no idea what would start,
The ‘Arab Spring’ began on that day,
Causing the Tunisian leader to give...

Read More