Imperfect Sonnet
by Michael R. Burch

A word before the light is doused: the night
is something wriggling through an unclean mind,
as rats creep through a tenement. And loss
is written cheaply with the moon’s cracked gloss
like lipstick through the infinite, to show
love’s pale yet sordid imprint on us. Go.

We have not learned love yet, except to cleave.
I saw the moon rise once ... but to believe ...
was of another century ... and now ...
I have the urge to love, but not the strength.

Despair, once stretched out to its utmost length,
lies couched in squalor, watching as the screen
reveals “love’s” damaged images: its dreams ...
and ******* limply, screams and screams.

Originally published by Sonnet Scroll

Keywords/Tags: tenement, rats, unclean, cheap, sordid, despair, squalor, TV, screen, sonnet, limp, limply, screams

Rimbaud watches me lay waste

his eyes like a rat's

from the bathroom tile

Christ watches me defile

atop high throne of bedroom wall

clock face keeps beat

as moans become wails

as ghosts grow taller

women grow older, shrinking

cars breed iron oxide, collapsing

on cinder blocks out window scrapyards

near hole in plaster

I turn to you like a child,

my cement blocks bleeding

"I hurt my hand"

Pimps and ******
Missiles and guns
Death the score
Sacrifice for fun

Dollars for dancing
Paradise for blood
Money men prancing
Preaching the flood  

Jesus the Christ
Bringing the end
Mohammed given the keys
To Syria, Persia, & Yemen

Religion’s a bubble
Waiting to bust
Propped up by the gullible
Distracted by lust

The Gods are worthless
You better short the dollar
The faithful and faithless
All living in squalor

Mammon, a prince of hell
That’s who we worship
Ring the bell
Ready the warship!

wanna guess
my empty distress
inside I'm a mess
this **** I detest

crack open a book
hey degenerate, take a look
flip a page
the world's a stage

blind, ignorant rage
our youth's worth minimum wage
living cheque to cheque, dollar to dollar
most of god's children grow up in squalor

the blood, the gore can't you see
it becomes ones destiny
no peace on earth, death, war and greed
ignorance dug the garden, hatred planted the seed

turned a blind eye for far too long
I became weak when I ignored the wrong