Short Reproved Poems

Freedom comes packaged
entrapped and confined

How big is your cage, 
 to roam and define

Always constricted,
with borders that move

Its bars of detention
—forever reproved

(Dreamsleep: January, 2021)...

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What is the point of grandma’s lullaby
if the child nestled in her arms
cannot be soothed?

Or the wail of the bagpipes,
lost as easily as the soldier’s body,
bloody and bruised.

See the shrike
and her cries in the wind,
left unheard and reproved.

By this, music is forgotten,
and seen as a mere
needle in a groove.

...

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The Locker
by Michael R. Burch

All the dull hollow clamor has died
       and what was contained,    
                   removed,              
                   reproved
         adulation or sentiment,
    left with the pungent darkness
as remembered as the sudden light.

Originally published by The Raintown Review...

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   Like a man possessed we fight
     'neath cool exteriors
   a raging fire burns, day and night

   We have nowhere to turn
     no matter how we yearn
   to parlez vous francais or habla ingles

   Never quite accepted
     by the whole world rejected
    All our efforts reproved
     ever on the move ... 

   I squirm and fidget
     'cos I never quite fit in
   Now, back in Israel 
     with God I dwell

   I know who and what I am
     back in my homeland...

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