These are poems about Palestinian children and their mothers...

 

Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.

 

Epitaph for a Palestinian Girl
by Michael R. Burch

Find in her pallid, dread repose,
no hope, alas!, for a human Rose.

 

who, US?
by Michael R. Burch

jesus was born
a palestinian child
where there’s no Room
for the meek and the mild

These are poems for children and poems about children and their mothers, fathers, grandmother, grandfathers and extended families. 

The Desk
by Michael R. Burch

for Jeremy

There is a child I used to know
who sat, perhaps, at this same desk
where you sit now, and made a mess
of things sometimes.I wonder how
he learned at all...

These are poems I call my Fables...



Will There Be Starlight
by Michael R. Burch

These are early poems I wrote starting as a boy around age eleven, through my teens in high school and my first two years of college, and a few that I wrote in my early twenties.

Clown
by Michael R. Burch
circa age 16

These are early poems of mine, written starting as a boy around age eleven, then as a teenager in high school and my first two years of college, plus a few that were written a bit later in my early twenties. 

Am I
by Michael R. Burch

Am I inconsequential;
do I matter not at all?
Am I just a snowflake,
to sparkle, then to fall?

Am I only chaff?
Of what use am I?
Am I just a feeble flame,
to flicker, then to die?

for Beth

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 came to me in my black torment
and kissed me fiercely, blazing like the sun

EARLY POEMS: JUVENALIA by Michael R. Burch

These are early poems that I wrote as a boy starting around age eleven, as a teen in high school and during my first two years in college, plus a few that may be a bit later.

Leave Taking
by Michael R. Burch, age 14

Brilliant leaves abandon
battered limbs
to waltz upon ecstatic winds
until they die.

But the barren and embittered trees
lament the frolic of the leaves
and curse the bleak
November sky.

These are early poems of mine, written beginning as a boy around age eleven, during my teens as a high school and college freshman and sophomore, and a few written in my early twenties.

The Toast
by Michael R. Burch

These are early poems of mine, written in my teens during high school and my first two years of college, with a few poems perhaps a bit later. 

Nevermore!
by Michael R. Burch

Nevermore! O, nevermore!     
shall the haunts of the sea
—the swollen tide pools
and the dark, deserted shore—
mark her passing again.

These are early poems of mine, written beginning around age eleven as a boy, then through my high school and college years ...

The Leveler
by Michael R. Burch

The nature of Nature
is bitter survival
from Winter’s bleak fury
till Spring’s brief revival.

The weak implore Fate;
bold men ravish, dishevel her ...
till both are cut down
by mere ticks of the Leveler.