Voices is intended to be a collection of poems written and illustrated
by Mike Burr .
flowers
George Bernard Shaw said
he would no more pick a flower
than pluck the heads off children
and put them in a vase"
yet he ate enough of the relatives of blooms
and probably some animals too
such is the hypocrisy of life
[though G.B.S was Irish
and thus can be forgiven his ignorance]
and of those descendants of Irish blooms
and of those open flowers
that breathe their dust
and scarlet stigma hearts
upheaving from their honest emerald style
and of the pain dipped cloud
and of the azure skies surround
i recall you
i recall you as a small blue thing
your knees against your chin
contained within yourself and crying small blue tears
now i am turning you within my core
and as you rotate your silent red hair flays my heart
and my body screams the blue-red notes of bent guitars
notes fragmented as the books you hurled
among your holocaust of destruction
and among them a small play by Bernard Shaw
in which a small blue girl
by dint of accent is transformed, Endymion
though G.B.S was Irish and you are American
you can be forgiven this naivety
and blue and jaded
yet in style naive
for art is in reality its creator
i have an image in front of me
you are applicating eye liner
you are long and smooth and curious
and noways near as lovely
as when you rounded small blue vowels
in intimation of the sound of England
and laughed the flickering candles of nights pleasure
so i have stolen Suzanne Vega
to impersonate you in the poster on your wall
and as i love her song and lyric soul
yet i have plucked her head and placed it
in this paper vase
such is the hypocrisy of usage