Long Bolted Poems

"Oh, indeed she was, young man ... I mean Greg. It IS Greg, if I recall correctly?"
     "Yes. Or you can call me True Friend if you like." I turned to...

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Unquotable quotes: The Janitor, Gardienne, Landlady, Housekeeper, Portero, the Sereno and the Hausgast – XXXI  Part One

Be they so named or not in these here parts, visions of shrieking furies with Gorgon heads and...

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Stood I there, that last day,
On an iron bridge...
An aqueduct by design,
Where, looking dreamily out over
The Ernes Lower Lough,
My compressed shadow 
Momentarily paused -
To contently recline:
Amidst coy Junes radiant beams 
of sweet benign!
All was stilled,...

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And that is why... this platform is here for answers they can't deny...
It's a truth within a complexity that is standing high...
Let us follow the roots and explore the depths of its grand design...
Cause every...

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I awoke to the familiar sound of dishes rattling in Mother’s kitchen and to the thick scent of coffee wafting through the air. I glanced out my bedroom window; the neighborhood was lit by the...

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New Year's Eve 2022

Yours truly riddled with social anxiety,
hence (billy me) he will idle away
December 31st, 2022 
sequestered (with the missus) 
hunkered down in his mancave
while madding crowd  
entertains reckons partition of time 
into...

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I.	Imagine a stack
Of razor blades
Bolted together
Polished edges
Forming a blunt mass…
Who would guess the 
Blackness of that face? 
	
II.	Picture Pandoran box
Harboring atom pulse; 
No less a voyeur
The scientist peering
Through revealing keyhole
Finds an interior
Darker than any light.
	
III.	Such...

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This embarrassingly irreverent piece is loosely based on a true story for which I've paid the price for pretty much causing it to happen more than once...PLEASE, no hate mail!   PS: "Bonnie" is...

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Five strangers rode into Bodie, a small gold mining town
They didn't look at anybody and kept their heads down
At the Citizens bank they halted, it had been a long ride
Four then entered the bank and...

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You rock me wildly
 To the black rhythms of juju music from the radio;
 Drinking horn in hand.
 Not too drunk to tread
 The course of blue, warmth
 And moaning shadows behind batiste curtain.
 Waves...

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In the Far Off Land of China
(To the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic)
Edit 1
By Franklin Price
03/28/2020

In the Far off land of China many thousand miles away
The Coronavirus came to its first human...

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Hidden beauty resides not in the grace like charms
Of coy smiles 
Painted across a gentle Madonnas face.
Nor is she vested within the chastened vows
Of saintly knights; encased Great-Helm:
Thus maketh the pale maidens meek pulse
To so...

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This piece was inspired, many years ago, by the magnificent poem - "The Highwayman" -



‘Neath an ivory moon in a cobalt sky, on a clear and silky night, 
On ebon steed, with pistol drawn, I...

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A Hallows Eve of trick or treating, elaborate costumes, candy eating,
       Lantern’s dimming upon nightfall, locked doors marks next year’s meeting.

My recalling of my day and for the next...

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This is based on a truly sad story from the late 1930s - 


Late one August afternoon - the year was nineteen ten - a hero - from my point of view - was quietly...

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The shades are drawn, and the paint is peeling on the façade, the door is cracked open as though the person inside is ready to run
He lies there positioning himself into a relaxed state, wondering...

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>center>Jaime was such a lonely boy and this he couldn't understand?
                    He didn't possess one harmful...

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There IS a Subtle Difference!



A friend of mine, of mixed descent - Nadia Bugerelli - called me on the phone last night and told me right straight out
That Juan Kazenski planned to beat me up...

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Like an allspice incensed quartet chorus,
the spirit of the living Word unveils before us.
Holy foundational page corners turn
in cardinal winds as red letters churn,

proclaiming the Gospel to each earthly corner,
through bolted borders, even reaching the...

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The night shone for the full moon,
Sky brewing a coarse monsoon,
Bolted were windows, locked were doors,
The frequency of death frighteningly soared.
But who was this infant high upon the hill?
He denied the storm and just stood...

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Moon 
---- 
 
 
Once night Gretta Foster sat in the backyard, 
building a rocket ship that ought to take her a-far, 
she had been working day and night - tirelessly, 
hammering, programming, all so...

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A child, crippled by a tragic accident
Learned how to excel in sorrow
Never listening to words
That would encumber his bright tomorrow

Who cares if he's a paralytic 
It has nothing to do with his mind
A ray of...

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We often hear of hardship with single motherhood,
how tough it is to raise a family on her own.
How a drunkard and a basher never makes life good.
Winning the gambling debts; losing the family home.

But there's...

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I have counted to ten a hundred times but I cannot get this thing off my mind, it has consumed my space and has taken over every aspect of the human race. It started out...

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hip hip hurrah, herc shot hera
sick sad era, tri city terror
dirty land lover, lips hit terra
karma bent over,  messenger error
never say neva, davin say better
no pain no gain, accept the rainy weather
paint a pic...

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