Best Stateside Poems

It seems like it was yesterday
   in backyard sandbox she had played;
      granddaughter loved to have her way
         with sand, her pail, scoop, shovel, spade.

She'd mold and build, with special...

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I was a picked on, 
bullied, browbeaten, buffaloed boy
from Buffalo New York.
I grew up on Buffalo’s lower east side,
the ghetto by another name.
The Frederick Douglass towers.
Formerly the Talbert Mall
better known as the Jefferson projects.
The home turf to a gang
called the Pythons.
It was a place
where angels...

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<                                            Sweetheart

...

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...The wedding was planned for that fifth year,
but when it came Rob sadly did say:
“I’m being deployed, they’re put us on alert,
I’m sorry love, but I must go away.”
She was in tears, but what choice had they?
What could she do but curse their luck?
The wedding...

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She'd waited so long
  Her love remained strong

Her man sent overseas
  She stateside, ill-at-ease

The lives of so many claimed
  or wounded or maimed

Now just three days to go
  Her nerves on edge and it showed

Two nights without sleep
  Tissue's tears...

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DEROS

There is great relief when a tour ends
and you are processed out of the unit;
addresses exchanged and goodbyes done
all thought is about the Freedom Bird
and the long awaited flight home.

Binh Hoa the last stop in Vietnam
here transitional shock begins;
pushed into unfamiliar rigid ranks 
while a...

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To hovel me in your zareba is your intention
“For safety, to protect, truly for protection.”
Transparent lies I can clearly see through
And my resolve is a monolith to see my dream come true.

I will not cave, Complacency, not even to you.
Bribe me, offer small bounty, no...

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THE SWEETEST NUN I KNOW

During my 20 year Air Force career, I was assigned to the Chaplain's Office as a Chapel Manager.  During this time, I was stationed in Vietnam and had the distinct privilege to work in a Vietnamese orphanage.  I met...

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we entered thee over crowded 
chanook lined with duffle bags 
and dusty jump boots I catered 
to the rear windows focusing only 

on the clearing the empty runway 
invited solitude while the hearing 
began in mid air returning to stateside 
offered an abrupt  glimpse...

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'You are' and 'We are' are not both the same,
In English we all play this dangerous game.
If I say you're lucky if you have some fun,
do I mean just 'you' or indeed everyone?
If I say we're lucky if we have some fun,
Is it 'me and...

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The morning sun’s oppressive; a nasty b*tch in heat on Rizal Avenue,
Where vendors hawk their cigarettes, baloot, and dog meat barbecue.
The jeepneys buzz the intersection like a hornet’s nest,
But it’s quiet down the mountain once the stone has come to rest.

Olongapo is waking. Magsaysay Drive...

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GHOST AND THE DARKNESS

Daunting, a late night movie, just before the verge of night spills into your lair. You can’t bury the dark at those times. The roar in the blackout. The snore at the opposite side of the bed deters the sound of brightness...

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When I Was Born in '45
By Franklin Price
08/08/202

When I was born in '45, was another time and place
Merritt Island, I called home, we had not gone to space
Segregation was the way, we lived back in the day
From then until the 60's, in the south, no...

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Opulent indulgence amenities
generously upload green thumb senses.
Greenhouse cautions region known as frost tease.
A pastime cores, aloof clock condenses,
held their grounds by abductions amateurs,
urged escape slips scaling agrees to muse,
as petalled lips voiced beauty needs no words,
collision scope of heaven's choice of hues,
evaporates the softening of...

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LAST YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL
As I was finishing my senior year in high school 
I knew I wanted out.
I wasn’t going to college. No desire or grades.
I was 18 after all, almost 19
Everyone asked, “what do you want to do with your life?”
I had no...

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