Long Dismounted Poems

Stars fall under failing skies...stars fall...stars fall...
And sadly...i start to drive.
Through the unremarkable village with its tall 
Georgian Bay window panes, lightless,
devoid of visages; outwardly staring back at my 
Abject countenance with detached contempt and...

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Young Timmy saw Jim walking down the street.  Timmy considered a quick retreat, but steadied himself with a shrug.  Timmy dreaded the sight of Jim, a teenage bully and wanna be thug, who...

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Galloping hooves broke morn's peace in Soup Creek's Main Street
When Jimmy Smith rode in from Bar 20 his face white as a sheet
He stopped at Sheriff Koplins office and banged heavily on the door 
"What's...

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Christ!
A warparty of 60 Shoshone warriors has just stampeded into the meadow
faces painted red and white for blood and death, all sorts of strange designs,
bows and arrows ready to fly on us, skull breaking cudgels...

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I learned so much last time I went too 

The shore casino near the ocean blue  

Conjuring up honesty and words that were true  

Looking for tranquil sanctuary to think and talk ...

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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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We'd been travelling through the night and we needed a rest
The unmerciful sun was now rising above a red rocky crest
We headed for a large boulder that offered plenty of shade
Jenna was getting sick and...

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There was a time 
In the not distant past
When farmers would sell their wares
Of fruits and vegetables they had planted
To feed the town folks, and balance a budget
In exchange, for clothes, sundries and junket
For the...

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Hordes of screams sounded out all around and masses of slashed bloody villagers staggered into our village.  Grownups started running to finding stuff to clean them     They kept saying “Janjaweed,...

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...“Time was I wouldn’t care for your sad state,
I’d have my fun and leave you to your plight,
but four years in a cell changes a man,
and I have set out to live my days right.

“Been...

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He followed this path for half a mile,
found himself high up on a cold platform.
The trail split, one went across the mesa,
the other went right, winding down below.

On the left he could see clear wagon...

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...They were quite faint, most would not have seen them,
just a pattern in how the grass did bend,
from their looks the cowboys seemed unaware,
Connolly decided to move with care.

He knew not what types of cowboys...

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When Sherriff Connolly came to Red Flat’s town,
Tte citizens came in from all around,
they had hotly anticipated this,
for too long they felt they had been helpless.

Now Connolly had heard of their travails,
all lawmen who had...

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Todd was riding in the desert,
through Arizona’s red-brown waste,
out chasing down word of silver,
it was 1878.

He had nothing to go back to,
never had fit in well back east,
he’d left for Denver eight years back,
found nothing...

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...Then he could see it, the boils,
on their neck and wrists, bright and red,
he felt an itch on his own back,
and felt a cold moment of dread.

Now Diaz could not ignore it,
and Mains’s words came...

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Prospector Hank rode down the canyon cold
Ten years on the trail, out looking for gold,
Hank found a camp, not long abandoned then
In the dust lay tracks, of cows and of men.
Why cows would be here,...

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Conley Pratt slouched over the horn
of a battered and trail-worn saddle,
been on the run for several hours now
after being caught rustling cattle.

His side ached, caked in fresh blood
from where a large bullet had struck,
he heard...

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V.
Besides a rushing stream he saw a stone hut,
framed by aspens clinging to a rough slope,
the chimney was stained from long years of use,
But who lived out here? He just didn’t’ know.

Until his eyes happened...

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West Texas is a vast, wide-open area, dusty, windy, and dry. Many a time I hid the mostly unbranded calves I took from the herd on the XIT ranch behind the tumbleweeds that had built...

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The sun was setting, as it usually does
The town a ghost town, the main street all but silenced
The wind blowing leaves and dreams to and fro
The tension in the air was palpable

The few souls about...

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The Unicorn

Once upon a time…
an incredible event occurred that was so sublime.
On a warm summer night many years ago,
awakened by the rhythmic tempo
of hoof beats coming from the yard below,
I peered outside my bedroom window.

There...

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The tank stopped abruptly
And we sat open mouthed
At what we beheld
Our brains could not assimilate
What our eyes were seeing
Great mounds of …. What?
It can’t be that.
All the horrors of war
We had witnessed, experienced
Since D-day
Did not...

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She came from out of nowhere 
Her hair flowing in the breeze 
Wearing a cowboy hat and boots 
With denim skirt above her knees 

Her steed that she rode upon 
Was as white as white...

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\

 Hopped out early from his bunk bed
 Jumped into his old blue jeans
 Slipped his hand into his pocket
 Found enough change for a drink

 Put his tennie to the kickstand
 Hopped aboard his...

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"I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In a short time finding the task which I had undertaken impracticable, as...

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