Unplug your clocks
Don’t wind up your watch
There’s no need for haste
There’s nuthin but now.
So farewell dear John
Time’s run out of you.
We’ve run out of song
And can only remember
The gift of your music
When time was alive.

Can I have some more "sir,

             how can we feed the children..


Put them in the coal mines,
                      its our new energy...

Green is dead..

I gave the logging corporations
             the go ahead to cut the lungs out,
who needs to breath fresh
          its all recycled, {redacted}
  its used and we'll sell it back to you.


Air who needs it,
   We'll sell you fresh in a unrecycled
canister,
                 with only a hint of contamination.


We made America great again,
                 even though you cant go out.

As we down played the viruses...

           All the bunkers were lately filled,

That singular cough flowing through
  the cheaply made ventilation system..


Made in the USA, more like red tape cut,
             As Americans cough to the grave...

But you died with a dollar in your hand..
                   Wait the money is what gave you

Covid 19 as it wasn't sanitised,

as money is
                   worth more than American lives..

since December, the world has turned--
turned into a skeleton place
first far away,
now commonplace

society became a bare-skinned animal
whose bones rattle in the breeze,
the infectious air diffusing
entwining inside us with ease

this animal's labored breathing--
poison emanates from every exhale--
is creeping, swirling, choking, whirling
without a visible trail

this animal roams about freely
without a stay-at-home order,
wraps its tendrils inside each painful breath,
knows not of race, religion, or border

so tell me why we've not tried to tame it,
most wonderful governor dear, oh yes!
your disregard for us, proclaim it!
instead you'd rather have fear, and death!

any call to action now
will have us all still writhing
the lame beast will conquer us,
thanks, to the lack of timing

the bare ***** beast hunts night and day
its being can't be cast away;
arm yourself against its wrath
society must pave its own path

Public places
now empty spaces
free of all familiar faces

But there is an upside
a turn of the tide
away from environmental suicide

Shifting towards clean
Mother Earth more serene
thriving more than I’ve ever seen

Humanity is under threat from Covid-Nineteen
The potential  threat for all of us is unforeseen

The loss of  precious life's is very hard to pen
Our prayers to the infected and not to get heartbroken

The spread of the virus seems to be a bad omen
We cannot  protect ourselves  using a  sunscreen

Our  medical, police and public health fraternity is caught in-between
The noble services  by all of them  will remain evergreen

The message is loud and clear as a siren
To follow the rules as a loyal citizen

Our responsible behaviour is golden
Let us unite and fight against an enemy that is unseen.

Coronavirus Poems

These are poems and translations of mine that apply to the coronavirus pandemic ...



This World's Joy
(anonymous Middle English lyric)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Winter awakens all my care
as leafless trees grow bare.
For now my sighs are fraught
whenever it enters my thought:
regarding this world's joy,
how it all comes to naught.

Originally published by Better Than Starbucks



Fowles in the Frith
(anonymous Middle English lyric)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The birds in the wood,
the fishes in the flood ...
and I must go mad:
much sorrow I walk with,
for beasts of bone and blood.



Ech day me comëth tydinges thre
(anonymous Middle English lyric)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Each day I’m plagued by three doles,
These gargantuan weights on my soul:
First, that I must somehow EXIT this fen.
Second, that I cannot know WHEN.
And yet it’s the third that torments me so,
Because I don't know where the HELL I will go!



Update of "A Litany in Time of Plague"
by Michael R. Burch

THE PLAGUE has come again
To darken lives of men
and women, girls and boys;
Death proves their bodies toys
Too frail to even cry.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!

Tycoons, what use is wealth?
You cannot buy good health!
Physicians cannot heal
Themselves, to Death must kneel.
Nuns’ prayers mount to the sky.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!

Beauty’s brightest flower?
Devoured in an hour.
Kings, Queens and Presidents
Are fearful residents
Of manors boarded high.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!

We have no means to save
Our children from the grave.
Though cure-alls line our shelves,
We cannot save ourselves.
"Come, come!" the sad bells cry.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!



thanksgiving prayer of the parasites
by Michael R. Burch

GODD is great;
GODD is good;
let us thank HIM
for our food.

by HIS hand
we all are fed;
give us now
our daily dead.

ah-men!

(p.s.,
most gracious
& salacious
HEAVENLY LORD,
we thank YOU in advance for
meals galore
of loverly gore:
of precious
delicious
sumptuous
scrumptious
human flesh!)

Originally published by Setu



evol-u-shun
by michael r. burch

does GOD adore the Tyger
while it’s ripping ur lamb apart?

does GOD applaud the Plague
while it’s eating u à la carte?

does GOD admire ur brains
while ur claiming IT has a heart?

does GOD endorse the Bible
you blue-lighted at k-mart?

NOTE: In the segmented title “evol” is “love” spelled backwards. The title questions whether you/we have been shunned by a "God of Love" or by evolution. William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” questions the nature of a Creator who brings lambs and tigers into the same world.



faith(less)
by michael r. burch

for the “Chosen Few”

those who believed
and Those who misled
lie together at last
in the same narrow bed

and if god loved Them more
for Their strange lack of doubt,
he kept it well hidden
till he snuffed Them out.

Keywords/Tags: coronavirus, virus, plague, disease, illness, death, fear, panic, dismay, germs, microbes

When I get out of quarantine
I’ll give away these ***** blue jeans,
I’ll wash my hair, I’ll drive somewhere,
I’ll breathe someone else’s air.
Oh what a happy day!
When I can put the games away.
I’ll go out to eat,
I’ll hug everyone I meet,
I’ll shake a stranger’s hand!
(I’ll do it because I can!)
No more six feet separation.
No more stinking isolation.
No more sanitizing
(That’ll be quite energizing!)
No more conference calls.
I’ll get away from these four walls.
I’ll be quite done with Zoom,
And sitting in my living room.
Let me make it clear, I’ll be outta here, I’ll throw away this screen!
When I get out, really out, when they finally, really, totally say --
I’m finished with this quarantine!
At least till next flu season.

As these days pass a sense of overwhelming reality is beginning to set amongst ALL of Gods Children. The fearless are beginning to have fear, The rich are beginning to feel the poor, The poor are becoming more poverty stricken. Once Optimistic people are now experiencing pessimism, Our Health Care Workers are having to make a decision, one that is the hardest in their life, Only the warriors and loving and caring of those will choose life for all but have to sacrifice and pray that they save lives and aren’t putting their families they go home to in any danger to make them sick. As their immune systems are built too be strong with facing sick patients every day. Their families immune system however is not. The Leaders, and the bosses, that never realized the value of their underpaid employee  until they witness them on the front line standing at their cash register to keep their very own families able to continue to buy groceries as well as all of ours too. The owners of businesses have all taken steps back and watched as their life dream, to support their families  quickly turned into a broken dream as they couldn’t afford closing their doors for one day that alone an indefinite amount of time. Our children that were never taught to Pray or believe in God, they are teaching their parents the importance of their salvation today. The parent that had forgotten the role of parenting are being made to protect their children, but this pandemic is far different than protection from a robber or a car accident or a fight or any act of violence , for atleast with those types of protection we know where the attacker is or can get them to a hospital if they are injured but we are faced with the fact that we can’t protect them against something we don’t know is present, it can’t be seen, there is no warning, and when we realize it has attacked , it’s already to late , it has taken over. Keep your self and your children home if you can. Love today people , like there is no tomorrow   Pray for God to restore our Land and for this pandemic to stop.  Give thanks to the people that have become our heroes because they didn’t sign up for our military to fight wars but let me tell you this , those heroes are fighting on the front line and looking the possibility of death in the face every  shift they pull, those people may not carry weapons but bet this , they are fighting the biggest most important war this world is yet to see   Stay safe and God bless   Thank you to my daughter, , (RN) in an emergency department.  My step daughter, front desk receptionist at a Dr office. And other step daughter, Receptionist for an optometrist, all of which still maintain their position on front line daily I love each of you very much