Long Slouches Poems

These are prophetic poems and apocalyptic poems ...






Beast 666
by Michael R. Burch

“... what rough beast ... slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?”?W. B. Yeats

Brutality is a cross
wooden, blood-stained,
gas hissing, sibilant,
lungs gilled, deveined,
red flecks on a...

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Various Heresies 2

You
by Michael R. Burch

For thirty years You have not spoken to me;
I heard the dull hollow echo of silence
as though strange communion between us.

For thirty years You would not open to me;
You remained...

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Sonnets LXXI-LXXX

Because You Came to Me
by Michael R. Burch

Because you came to me with sweet compassion
and kissed my furrowed brow and smoothed my hair,
I do not love you after any fashion,
but wildly, in despair.

Because you...

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"A dressed day has disrobed into the depth of a drawer's nightstand." 

(Oh, how positively awesome that what can be sorted out in such an explanatory pattern that a difference would maketh a day.)

The muskiness...

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Unquotable quotes: Paris, the last week of the August reprieve – XXXV Part Two
                 II

The first signs reek tell-tale
Buffer-to-buffer...

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Another day in dreamland

Wake up.  Watch the sun ease in the light
like the day before, goin back, and on some more.
Cuddle with the reasons why while I collect
my unconscious back from the sky.
Okay, get...

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There he sits that monstrous hypocrite. There he dwells as I wash these dishes, his dishes. There he slouches, watching his games, his news, his crap. I try and think to dream past my own...

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Hare trigger instincts
always served Roger well
He had an oh, no-no lettuce nose — 
a hyper-keen sense   when to leave
Roger was rabbit good
at knowing when
to skip out    on his responsibilities ...

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The morning sun’s oppressive; a nasty b*tch in heat on Rizal Avenue,
Where vendors hawk their cigarettes, baloot, and dog meat barbecue.
The jeepneys buzz the intersection like a hornet’s nest,
But it’s quiet down the mountain once...

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His granite form against blue skies
Rippling on the bulging eye, wild waves
Of muscles the netting cloud defies
Reason in concrete, his pride raves
In self glory of athleticism, what a gem
Hard and shadowed without a diadem.

I know...

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Day Mind
Night Mind

A door is open.
Through the doorway,
I see a wall weakly
illumined.
A distorted shadow slouches,
menacingly along it.
I close my eyes,
my toes grip 
the carpet.
I do not want to see, 
what I despairimgly
believe will be,
the cause...

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I’m toey this morning, we’re getting a test back. I was all right or all wrong. I’m early, the first one here. I’m hoping the TA will early-bird and return my test before anyone else...

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The grumpy principal athwart the class
is walloping the learner ad infinitum
with his computer cable,
and screeching his lungs out
his wrath and his tranquilities;
he says she’s late for school yet again.

Madly she pulls across the desks;
pleads for...

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Climb those many stairs, up to the stars.
“Cut!” Comes the child, the wee Pinkerton.
Stunt double, doubles down, with plethora of scars.
Fate is what it is, bumps, bruises...sorta fun.

Pinkerton rolls and bounces, ooches and ouches.
Then they...

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Once the future promised brilliance, but it never came to light 
As the star I’d used to guide me dimmed and blended with the night.
The astronomy of darkness lured me farther from my goal
Till I...

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911 Carousel
by Michael R. Burch

“And what rough beast ... slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”—W. B. Yeats

They laugh and do not comprehend, nor ask
which way the wind is blowing, no, nor why
the reeling azure fixture...

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Home from a chemo session, uncle lights up
a cigarette and collapses
to the slick plastic that covers your chaise
lounge, auntie. He thumps the upholstery
with his legs and elbows for blood
to circulate again. A flake

drifts. Dehydrated lips,...

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He flashed a smile on his way out,
Giving his co-workers a wide wave,
And he had absolutely no doubt, 
That he was better than his friend Dave.

He struts past all the buildings and shops,
Straightens his tie...

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The scrape of tooth
on my bottom lip
as she pulls
her kiss
milisecs
away
agonise
the wait
...oh the wait
My breath deliberately
taken
Skin that tastes the flesh beneath
Muscles undulate
in untrained ways
Truths become elusive
Masquerading as the senses
Death slouches from the rooms corner
But pauses in...

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Little man little problem
Confined in the box
Pleasure at his leisure
Quelling insatiable hunger

Gust of distrust
Intrusion of endless chatter
Never a dull moment
Yet the land is bad

The land is bad indeed
Day and night on wobbling legs
The hands stocked...

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Into a garden sprayed by night's rain,
Jen  slouches under a dim lamplight
as the wind gushes on her divan
sweeping pages of a long era,
jotted down through crystal-clear memoirs
from her flawless hand, still radiant... 
while tendrils...

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“Sissy! Sassy! Saucy! Sissy! Sassy! Saucy! ”

It is so much to say he found those words hard and palsy.

He normally comes in morning around eight.

I don’t even know what is making him so late.

 

He...

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Know the Beauty of tomorrow began in the past--
And it must last through today,
Suffering the indignities at hand.
And then you can see out of Spiritus Mundi
A shape with lion body and the head of a...

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I was gifted a little gem; her name is Polka Dots.
She's an English greyhound wench, stands as tall as a park-bench.
She's white, full of black spots, slender stem, and loves apricots.
Her previous owner use to...

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Tired



I am so tired today
All my will and strength
Seems to have leaked away

Seeping from a hole in my left foot
A human skin balloon
I slowly deflate 

I can’t rally my thoughts
Or make a break for a...

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