Observance Poem by Michael Burch

I wrote this poem as a teenager, in a McDonald's break room. It was the first poem that made me feel like a "real poet, " so I will always treasure it. The poem was published as "Reckoning" by Arkansas Tech University in Nebo: A Literary Journal, then by Tucumcari Literary Review. After being revised and renamed "Observance, " it was selected as a top 100 poem in the 1999 Writer's Digest rhyming poetry contest, out of over 13,000 overall contest entries. It also won 4th place in another large poetry contest sponsored by Iliad Press. It was subsequently published in Piedmont Literary Review, Romantics Quarterly, Poetry Life & Times, Verses, Setu, Better Than Starbucks, The Chained Muse and the anthology There is Something in the Autumn. Not too shabby for a teenage poet!