Long Deals Poems

Rumors
How we arrived at where we are
By Franklin Price
05/03/2020

By now you've heard the rumors
How Covid-19 came to Earth
How it did not come here naturally 
How Wuhan, China gave it birth

Maybe aided by our government
To make...

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Flint 
Within its brilliance gleaming
Cool black in lacquered polished silver chrome
Cranked up pistons bleached in summer’s heat
Hot steam rising as gears thundering
Beyond the crystal liquid city lights
Highways built across the land
In hearts felt pride American...

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Next day new school day. 
Amadeus was the first to
Wake then he woke DJ and 
Damali And all three went for
The showers. Twenty minutes 
Later they woke everybody else 
Including the adults. The Hakim 
Children...

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Fadwa Tuqan has been called the Grand Dame of Palestinian letters and The Poet of Palestine. These are my translations of Fadwa Tuqan poems originally written in Arabic.



Enough for Me
by Fadwa Tuqan 
loose translation/interpretation by...

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Date:   July  2049

Early morning combinations 
Personal hygiene conversations
And kisses in most of the Hakim 
Households. Damian was negotiating 
For properties in Virginia namely 
Virginia Beach. He wanted the 
Prosperous realty. He spoke...

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In Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged"
she paints a nationalistically wealthy saint
where also lives a monochromatically utilitarian narcissist,
sucking on attachment to fame and power
for bought and sold ZeroSum accounting Souls.

If the perfectly powerful pure patriarchal patriot
were your...

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English translations of Arabic poems by Fadwa Tuqan aka "The Poet of Palestine"

Enough for Me
by Fadwa Tuqan 
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Enough for me to lie in the earth,
to be buried in her,
to sink...

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"Azure Vistas"

Azure vistas presented themselves to me
rolling inwards the clouds like tumbleweeds
mercilessly bump fallen angels off the map
like torrents of rain falling petulantly on blunt contracts

I glimpsed the sweet refrain of a resurrection
swift upon a...

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Today is assiduously
religiously different,
as I review our local RiverEast News.

Every week
Mike Thompson writes a solid Editorial
in a compelling voice.
I expect to only add
my hearty sacred
happy secular "Amen!"

Our nearly fearless Editor and Chief
calls for political "ACCOUNTABILITY!"
like...

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Note to Readers of Previous Versions:
There are so many new vignettes scattered throughout the poem that I hope you will reread the whole thing! There are many new GEMS, improvements to previous verses and improved...

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How I Got Richer and What I Did Next



I struck a sly deal with some Wall Street investors.
I shorted 'em stocks that didn't exist!
But they got me back (those post-empty-nesters)
by making fake deals I couldn't...

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I met with some bankers in fine textured suits.
I struck a deal quick. (I had such a knack.)
I offered rare cacti and tropical fruits – 
a cure-all for things that ail your back.

I served 'em...

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From the window of my chic city office, lost in thought, I gaze out.
The pedestrians scurry like frenzied ants below, caught up in their bustling state of holiday insanity.
In his haste to cross the street...

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Life is like that extent 
     Live that moment 
                   to full extent...

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YOU ARRIVED ON CUE I SUPPOSE RIGHT AFTER THE CHRISTMAS DAY ARSONS MURDERS PROCLAIMING MY LIFE WAS IN GRAVE DANGER WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ARSON MURDER 8 ELDERLY PERSONS PARISHES PROCLAIMED MY EX HUSBAND...

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The invaluable dream you had in mind
Yesterday, you said you would take steps on achieving it tomorrow,
Yesterday's tomorrow has come today, so you still postpone it to tomorrow.
When will you stop procrastinating!
What is the connection...

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The invaluable dream you had in mind
Yesterday, you said you would take steps on achieving it tomorrow,
Yesterday's tomorrow has come today, so you still postpone it to tomorrow.
When will you stop procrastinating!
What is the connection...

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ABOUT   THE   PRESS


The media, the press was established as an institution to fight for humanity and human right as well. To serve as a mediator between the people underground and the...

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The Mirror

When I look in the mirror I don’t see me, I see who I used to be.  A little lost girl that was so abused and so misused, so ashamed of who she...

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When we set out on a road trip
We didn’t stick to the old script
And were gladly amazed
And rarely unfazed
Hitting strange towns though some were skipped

We started from Thatsnot, OK
Which was more or less ok
But then...

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Tim’s father had been a refugee once he put down his fight and his gun

The story is that he embarked on the very last ship leaving East Prussia

Under siege tanks and bombs from above fireworks...

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It is a strange dream
in which an animal rights advocate
is swamped with questions
from Chief Justice Roberts.

A vicious dog,
trained to attack humans 
with politically incorrect audacity
to trespass against his white supremacist Master,
has been imprisoned
and sentenced to...

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Prisoner of the Matrix loaded
Prisoner of the matrix loaded

Cattle within the herd
cages within the slaughter
Profiteers prey upon the wounded
Branded comodified beings consumed
In consumption
Led to the plunder of themselves
Within the plotted grids of bondaged earth

Still between...

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“Barking Up the Wrong Tree” 

ghost gums
shed their bark 
the min-min 
makes good use of it
papyrus, soft enough to 
imprint and write
thoughts, like the 
ripening welts of 
green ants 
small bites sting
subcutaneous and 
meridional, 
terra...

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Verse 1: Falling into place the moment you caressed my face
Bathing in the waters of woe...wishing to find your ship of grace 
Spinning around all over the place,
Trying to find my place, but you invade...

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