• The filthy rat that was living in my walls
• Had left the house before the rain fell
• When it left, in its maw
• It carried a rusty old bell
faerie boy and his snail rabbit
had a rather lovely habit
of traveling at night in the woods
doing what others wished they could
they were not seen by human beings
light and lithe, fully playful and fleeing
we empaths sensed but never saw
the snail rabbit and his boy Maw
A raw red crater of hunger;
the clacking tongue a buckram spear
shaken at all comers.
The gulls mouth is the gull,
the gullet is the gull
the torso, the snowy pale blue plumage,
that dark under-feathering
all the body of the bird
a perfect bow
for the arrowing beak
and its raucous bugle.
A neck stretched for greed;
above that gorge, hard-set and avaricious,
glint eyes long allied to savage seas.
The bird has the primal scream
of a scavenger,
the gall of the harassing hunter
- and yet is admirable,
sleekly beautiful, often graceful,
until,
rigid jaws agape
we regard its wide-open craw,
wince
as those shears clamp down
on some still wriggling shred.
For Those Thrust into War's Maw
by Michael R. Burch
This poem is dedicated to Harvey Stanbrough, an ex-marine who was nominated for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize and has written passionately and eloquently about the horror and absurdity of war in “Lessons for a Barren Population.”
No, I will never know
what you saw or what you felt,
thrust into the maw of Eternity,
watching the mortars nightly
greedily making their rounds,
hearing the soft damp hiss
of men’s souls like helium escaping
their collapsing torn bodies,
or lying alone, feeling the great roar
of your own heart.
But I know:
there is a bitter knowledge
of death I have not achieved,
and in thankful ignorance,
and especially for my son
and for all who benefit so easily
at so unthinkable a price,
I thank you.
Published by Romantics Quarterly, Poetic Reflections and Poetry Super Highway as "Privilege." Keywords/Tags: Vietnam War, marines, military, service, honor, duty, bravery, heroism, maw, mortars, rounds, souls, escaping, bodies, corpses, death, heart, roar, bitter, knowledge, thanks, thank you, war, violence, USA, military, courage, patriotic, hero
In fields of green
you cannot be seen.
At night you wait
while your targets prepare their plates.
A combat knife you have.
for tonight there will be a blood bath.
All the terror you will cause
blood will be dripping from your maw.
Bodies mangled and mutilated
your senses were truly stimulated.
Into the night you leave,
for you sated your bloodlust in the summer eve.
A day in memorial ,
a day in which you grow more feral.
Another midnight slaughter for you to attend
makes sure their lives are painfully put to an end.
It's been two years today, since you went away.
Life without you, just isn't the same.
I would give anything to see you again.
Fly high my angel in heaven.
The maw of war opens signs
the sepulcher of promise
denotes a rose bleeding all
those who suppose in time
battle axes and saviors
bite the head of the snake
drooling gibberish of bravery
drained batteries on mobiles
an old man pants and drools
a childhood lost at sea (infernos rage in crime)
inspired by those who wish to wash you
feel the scrape of skin (calls and a bartering nun soothes)
holy mary, mother may eye
-s close the world shuts to black
clouds know rain and snow
weakness (blood-drained brain)
the secret seethes in an angels’ scream
(a breath in a dream) butterflies moths
mothers and whores invoke the power
(squeezed-heart-seconds) cringed dolls
curled in tattered repose (symphonies, politicians,
the ratio is severed the knowledge puked in dejavu’s)…
tight marionettes dance through my neck
a tornado pulls calm through my chest,
heavy, heaving, heaven, hell,
bells toll churches kick graves in
--boots thunder through hidden halls—
of wood vampires milking judgment cracked in stone…
winter's maw
haze of fogs wallows
nature's view
sun's glory
fondling warm rays' smile
dew drifts out