Childless

Childless
by Michael R. Burch

 
How can she bear her grief?
Mightier than Atlas, she shoulders the weight
of one fallen star.
 

Laughter’s Cry
by Michael R. Burch

 
Because life is a mystery, we laugh
and do not know the half.

Because death is a mystery, we cry
when one is gone, our numbering thrown awry.
 

Long Division
by Michael R. Burch

 
All things become one
Through death’s long division
And perfect precision.
 

Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

 
It’s not that every leaf must finally fall,
it’s just that we can never catch them all.
 

Piercing the Shell
by Michael R. Burch

 
If we strip away all the accouterments of war,
perhaps we’ll discover what the heart is for.
 

Here and Hereafter
by Michael R. Burch

 
Life’s saving graces are love, pleasure, laughter ...
wisdom, it seems, is for the Hereafter.
 

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.
 

Styx
by Michael R. Burch

 
Black waters,
deep and dark and still . . .
all men have passed this way,
or will.
 

Stormfront

by Michael R. Burch

 
Our distance is frightening:
a distance like the abyss between heaven and earth
interrupted by bizarre and terrible lightning.

Ince St. Child
by Michael R. Burch

When she was a child
in a dark forest of fear,
imagination cast its strange light
into secret places,
scattering traces
of illumination so bright,
years later, she could still find them there,
their light undefiled.

When she was young,
the shafted light of her dreams
shone on her uplifted face
as she prayed ...
though she strayed
into a night fallen like woven lace
shrouding the forest of screams,
her faith led her home.

Now she is old
and the light that was flame
is a slow-dying ember ...
what she felt then
she would explain;
she would if she could only remember
that forest of shame,
faith beaten like gold.

This was an unusual poem, and it took me some time to figure out who the old woman was. She was a victim of childhood incest, hence the title I eventually came up with.