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Free Verse Ranch

Hear the clip-clop of iambic beats
Sounds like Shelley with a side of Keats
Is that the scritchity-scratch of a goose quill flickin’
Or just the tippity-tap of some mouse you clickin’..?

So you a prophet poet, regular Marley meets Dylan
Writin’ about oppression and unjust killin’
Shootin' the Sheriff with a Reggae song
Inspirin' your generation with a sing along

A shot of tequila with a wedge of lime
Saddle up and bide your time
Every line don’t need to rhyme
I can give you a million examples

You don't seem like the lyrical type
Kickin' cold turkey with oranges ripe
That's the fruit that rhymes with nothin’
Fresh squeezed it's good for somethin’

Citric flashback, Tang for the brain
Hyperspace wormholes one cannot explain
Sun dippin' below the rim of a rhymeless plateau
Cow skull and cactus, a timeless tableau

In the twilight gloom, a weather-beaten sign
Free Verse Ranch is the place to dine
Gorge on rhyme-free wordplay victuals
Linguistic linguini and cage-free visuals

Specialty of the house: lemon chicken couplet
With a side of mashed onomatopotatoes--plop!
Gravy sloppin’ down slopes like molten lava
Washed down with mugs of fresh-brewed java

Buzzards circlin' the sky in a lazy ellipse
Moon moseyin' in for a total eclipse
Flee in the dark, take a steed for a ride
Jump the split rail fence to the other side

Leap back in time to a buzzin' hive
Looks like the vortex, circa 1995
Can barely think amid the din
Perfect time for the ‘shrooms to kick in

Tie-dyed girl where I left her spinnin' in place
Band still playin' a trippy Drums n Space
But how strange that I cannot feel my face
How did twenty years vanish without a trace?

Tumbleweed twirlin' down the rutted street
Empty rocking chair swayin' skee-reet skee-reet
'Taters still steamin' like a mini-volcano
Room reeks of whiskey stronger than Drano 

Spilled orange juice tricklin' a fly-food slurry
Someone cleared outta Free Verse Ranch in a helluva hurry
The clip-clop of iambic beats, Sheriff on my tail
He wouldn't shoot an unrhymed man, would he?

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Andrea Dietrich

Date: 4/4/2016 3:59:00 PM

hahaha. You are brilliant, Brian. Just one thought. Since you were supporting free verse here, I am surprised you did it in rhyme. But of course, in rhyme, you made it FUNNER. That is probably main difference. Rhyming just makes it all more fun. Anyway, I LOVED this. a SEVEN

Brian Mcclain
Date: 4/7/2016 2:15:00 PM

Hi Andrea, Thank you very much for the generous comment. Greatly appreciated! I'm glad you liked the poem. Cheers, Brian

Timothy Hicks

Date: 3/18/2016 10:16:00 PM

Another excellent poem, man! I find it so delightfully ironic how you are writing about "Free Verse Ranch" in a poem with very consistent (nearly) rhymes. "onomatopotatoes - plop!" ... I don't how many people appreciate this sort of humor, but for me it is comic gold. And yes, it's more poetic to say "feather quill" but really how many people actually write like that, let alone just a regular pen? The best use of onomatopoeia that I've read on the site (it's not a literary device often used).

Brian Mcclain
Date: 3/18/2016 10:46:00 PM

Hi Timothy, Thank you very much for the thoughtful read and in depth commentary. You know, I had an earlier version where it was maybe a 50-50 free-verse-to-rhyme ratio (with oranges ending one of the lines). But then, like a rhyme junkie, I kept going back and editing: "Just ONE more rhyming couplet, and I'll leave the rest as free verse--swear to God!" So the theme is more about not being able to handle staying at Free Verse Ranch. Glad you liked onomatopotatoes-plop -- I was trying to think of culinary-poetic wordplay and that sort of just popped--or ploppped!--into my head. I think I did have "feather quill" at one point, but switchedto goose to shave one syllable to match with the following line--and also to cram one more animal into the mix, to sort of enhance the ranch theme (cow, steed, chicken, turkey, buzzard). Thank again! Cheers, Brian