Tabled Poems

. . . 


after the ellipsis
we confer 

entrenched in the awakened
a story rises from the burn
limbs parted and wrapped about
delved deep within the yearn

it is the beginning 
with no end
collaborating on the middle
where jute has left her mark

past the tense...Read More

Multiplication, Tabled
by Michael R. Burch
 
Be fruitful and multiply”—
great advice, for a fruitfly!
But for women and men,
simple Simons, say, “WHEN!”
...Read More

An ambitious druid set out to recover an omnipotent ancient fluid

She was a kind witch with a wee twitch about to discover a glitch

Laboured with great force to go back to the Source and in due course

She tabled a motion...Read More

Epigrams
by Michael R. Burch

To write an epigram, cram.
If you lack wit, scram!

Conformists of a feather
flock together.

If every witty thing that’s said was true,
Oscar Wilde, the world would worship You!

Love has the value
of gold, if it’s true;
if not, of rue.

Fierce ancient...Read More

Give me that old time religion
Give me that old time religion
Give me that old time religion
It’s good enough for me

Songwriters: Ford/Fascinato

With age comes the inner, the higher life.
Who would be forever young,
to dwell always in externals?

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

COMMUNION OF SAINTS

tabled
...Read More

A numbness the dull orange of safety cones toddles through him, twists 
the upright screw shrink-wrap tight, and clamps him to the tabled edge
upon the realization his 
       newest mistake came,
   ...Read More

Every time I change directions
lately, and possibly beforely,
Trees stand by to mentor
and nurture,
to feed with branched hands
to bleed when uprooted
from aptic past centuries
of hibernating winter naps.

Trees of original pheromone attraction,
August spawned
like Taurus colonizing crabgrass
embedded in deep horticultural learning root systems
self-with-other...Read More

(Holding fire and water together) 
I don't know why the rain keeps writing the 
name of Nigeria on the ground in every corner. 
I don't know why we are this broken and 
tortured like the fragments of the dust. 
I...Read More

(SOLACE AND SOLITUDE) 

if all tongues wag for the girlchild
then, what happens to the boychild? 
if all the rivers run to the hut of females, 
the farms of males will be left 
unattended with  hornful thorns! 
Boys are dreamers...Read More

To keep your marriage smiling
Never point your finger on the
Hungry face of your husbands,
Never dream like a woman in
the Disney World Series of lies 
and paint that clothed sorrows

To keep your love brimming,
Never accuse your husband
Of the missing meat in...Read More

When the veil is pulled away subject exposed story 
what motivation drives these blind merchants 
let's lay it out clearly from waters of your soul tabled 
evidence points to an unstable world circus painting creeping bugs 
following a trail of...Read More

"If I'd ‘bermembered' Quincy (1) then
I never would have come."
This four-year-old, (2) her hands on hips,
Made older kids feel dumb!

The thought, of raising voice to Dad,
Sent ice chills down my spine.
But when a child tells power truth,
It's years best Valentine!

There’s...Read More

What’s wrong with a child creating
in comic book style their own villains,
and heroes armed with guns.  A n d  still the teachers teach
to be civilized you must not color

outside       the lines

as if...Read More

Oh, You ...

You found me ... again ...
               Unveiled amid the bosom of my dreams,
My consciousness peeled back and flayed -
     ...Read More

These cascaded tears are black in complexion,
I started arranging them when I was fourteen.
These broken stars are the horizons of fear, 
I started numbering them when I was ten. 
These words were the scars seen
in the smile of my mother...Read More

I felt it like the storm
I called it my trying times
During my dying time.
In rear times.

But the moon looked at me with pity
As the Sun wished it could dry my tears 
By shining so brightly.

My pain wrapped itself around me
Like...Read More

Is there really a beautiful heaven?
Is there a red and black hell for sinners? 
Basking on this,  I told myself that the beautiful heaven is this we see now, argue with the sky and cloud on this. 
Father Francis...Read More

Five stones     
                 closing times
radiograms and
              ...Read More

There is a full moon at your doorstep,
a silver coin placed on your navel rubbing 
its metal which Perches on body of humans,
Clouds walk on the horizon and etch new rivers
 on your body feeding the offspring with meaning. 
Summer...Read More

I have hope in Africa
That this rain will stop
When the drums are sounded
and every woman remember home
and boys take up farming as a career. 


Then Okonkwo  will return to Africa
Home won't be like Animal Farm
Where the leaders rule ...Read More

ISSUES OF THE HEART

For Grace Mike.

Do you remember, Grace?
Do you remember our first kiss on the altar of love?
You wrapped me in your arms and wetted my lips 
with innocent sensational emotions.
The fragment of your moans and groans rest
here in...Read More

Leaked excerpts from the journal of a
disgruntled federal, civil servant employee. 
These views and opinions are not shared by 
the Environmental Protection Agency.
These excerpts were made public by an anonymous source.


My knightly mission is to protect the air you breath,
keep...Read More

This is Lagos-
a welcoming address to all dignities
an old sermon preached by three wisemen
no praises or pleasantries at the entrance gate
Come and face your death or life warrant
in a no man's land but everyone's home
The walls of the streets are...Read More

I'm permanently casual, a full on part time,
A jack of just about every small trade.
When I was young my friends merrily defined their own career,
But it was with girls that I always played.

Untrained and unprogrammed, uneducated and unskilled,
I pretended I...Read More

                        

It’s way back in the eighties, of  the eighteenth century,
the bad man Johnny Ringo, did...Read More