Michael R. Burch
Michael R. Burch
Michael R. Burch is the poetry editor of The HyperTexts. He has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his work has appeared over 400 times in literary journals and sundry publications in the USA,
England, Scotland, Canada, India, South Africa and Australia, including: Poetry Magazine, Light Quarterly, The Chariton Review, The Lyric, The Neovictorian/Cochlea, The Best of the Eclectic Muse (1989-2003), Poet Lore, The New Formalist, Piedmont Literary Review, Iambs & Trochees, The Raintown Review, Mandrake, ByLine, Verse Libre, Unlikely Stories, Penumbra and Nebo. He has a personal poetry web site (doesn't everyone, and their dog?) at michaelburch.com.
Tremble
Her predatory eye,
the single feral iris,
scans.
Her raptor beak,
all jagged sharp-edged thrust,
juts.
Her hard talon,
clenched in pinched expectation,
waits.
Her clipped wings,
preened against reality,
tremble.
Originally published by The Lyric
See
See how her hair has thinned: it does not seem
like hair at all, but like the airy moult
of emus who outraced the wind and left
soft plumage in their wake. See how her eyes
are gentler now; see how each wrinkle laughs,
and deepens on itself, as though mirth took
some comfort there and burrowed deeply in,
outlasting winter. See how very thin
her features are--that time has made more spare,
so that each bone shows, elegant and rare.
For loveliness remains in her grave eyes,
and courage in her still-delighted looks:
each face presented like a picture book’s.
Bemused, she blows us undismayed goodbyes.
Originally published by Writer’s Digest’s The Year’s Best Writing (2003) and The Eclectic Muse
Michael R. Burch is the poetry editor of The HyperTexts. He has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his work has appeared over 400 times in literary journals and sundry publications in the USA,
England, Scotland, Canada, India, South Africa and Australia, including: Poetry Magazine, Light Quarterly, The Chariton Review, The Lyric, The Neovictorian/Cochlea, The Best of the Eclectic Muse (1989-2003), Poet Lore, The New Formalist, Piedmont Literary Review, Iambs & Trochees, The Raintown Review, Mandrake, ByLine, Verse Libre, Unlikely Stories, Penumbra and Nebo. He has a personal poetry web site (doesn't everyone, and their dog?) at michaelburch.com.
Tremble
Her predatory eye,
the single feral iris,
scans.
Her raptor beak,
all jagged sharp-edged thrust,
juts.
Her hard talon,
clenched in pinched expectation,
waits.
Her clipped wings,
preened against reality,
tremble.
Originally published by The Lyric
See
See how her hair has thinned: it does not seem
like hair at all, but like the airy moult
of emus who outraced the wind and left
soft plumage in their wake. See how her eyes
are gentler now; see how each wrinkle laughs,
and deepens on itself, as though mirth took
some comfort there and burrowed deeply in,
outlasting winter. See how very thin
her features are--that time has made more spare,
so that each bone shows, elegant and rare.
For loveliness remains in her grave eyes,
and courage in her still-delighted looks:
each face presented like a picture book’s.
Bemused, she blows us undismayed goodbyes.
Originally published by Writer’s Digest’s The Year’s Best Writing (2003) and The Eclectic Muse