Long Interstate Poems

The Highways and the Byways
By Franklin Price
10/27/2107
(Inspired by Nancy McIntyre Stepp)

 The highways and the byways
Of this life in which we've grown
Bring back many memories
Of  places we have known

The Interstates most boring
They bypass most...

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Ghost Of Tsali Comes

Lost in mist and maze
Ghost of Tsali in the corn
River water runs

Colors of fall alive
“Til moon replaces sun
That’s when Tsali comes 

Corn roots cling to bone
As he tends the empty weirs
This spot...

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The Killing Field”

Ariana nodded, tremolo fingers,
and they ran across the killing field,
watching the steel-toed kite ascend—
a fleeting instant of triumph in the vacuum.
Josh scoffed as it dipped,
both caught in the pull of the abyss,
falling but...

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The Killing Field”

Ariana nodded, tremolo fingers,
and they ran across the killing field,
watching the steel-toed kite ascend—
a fleeting instant of triumph in the vacuum.
Josh scoffed as it dipped,
both caught in the pull of the abyss,
falling but...

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Living in California is a brave thing to do, I’m convinced
Any time the ground around you could break into pieces, but residents seem so indifferent
of this threat that the ground they stand on could take...

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It is the winter of 1980.
I’m twenty-eight years young, 
Driving a red Mustang with glass T-tops,
Feeling all of my awesome sassiness, from toe
To Afro, when I notice the cards driving ahead of me
Are all slowing...

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Three states
in five hours.
Maybe we’ll stop somewhere nice
like a KOA campground.
A kid can hope. It’s hot and it would be great to go for a swim. Instead we stop at the liquor store,
dad buys a...

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I’ll handle the rejection as a merit in my spirit, as I did once when I was a kid. 
The townspeople will turn all of the sprinklers on when spring has made its arrival apparent...

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Black market product truckload ... 
illegal cargo of tax-free merchandise,
and plenty boxed liquor of trouble
Leather clad tattooed dirty violet blonde
riding shotgun,
with a Rambo knife hugging her thigh
In the cab backseat
sit two mountain men beastie boys
strapped...

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When the apostles of Jesus Christ, after his ascension into heaven, spread the doctrine
of Christianity throughout the ancient Roman empire.  Those who made their profits in
making pagan idols for worship accused the Apostle Paul...

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When I worked as a carpenter there was an iron clad rule.If you woke up to a drizzling rain you came to work in hopes it would soon abate.
However,if it was pouring and the old...

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- and, anyway, who breaks wind over double-M, a. k. a. Manson,

Marilyn?

I'll give a ride on my razor any day to

The-Second-Prime-of-Nine-to-the-Sixth,

who was around long before CD's, DVD's, MTV, and YOU / MYtube,

spitting out the healing...

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Back during a time when I still had a desire to date
I took out the following personal ad, with the hope of finding my mate.
That's no longer on my agenda. I'm very content to be...

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Hired first as your band's assistant
Adonis with bonus warmest manner
Smile left me gooey, I couldn't resist it
Fluent guitar fingers sparked my enamour

Liasing with music gurus was realms apart
From routine of home, single Mom of two
Denham...

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This Holiday collaboration is brought to you from Carolyn Devonshire and Tony Lane. Carolyn wrote all of the even stanzas and I wrote all of the very odd ones. 

I was driving the interstate while...

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Eye of the Storm, It was there on a warm, muggy night. That of a dark but black cloud that linger across the sky to which I thought it was going be just another stormy...

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From Chicago to Tampa Bay in a Ford Granada some time in the mid- 70's. Unfortunately, we were not interested in mountains, because we took interstate 75 and drove through Tennessee 'at night'. We felt...

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Life is a Journey
To my brother and sisters as you travel along the high of life, I want you to keep in your mind the road condition. There is going to be rainy days, sunny...

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Econo Lodge sign
       High
        On
        Its
      Pylon

Best we can do
For...

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Author's note: This is an epic length poem that will have to be split into parts and will be serialized in successive posts.

Part 2

act three

in the third act delirious 
the laws of physics etc.
he coughs...

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Life is a Journey
To my brother and sisters as you travel along the high of life, I want you to keep in your mind the road condition. There is going to be rainy days, sunny...

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Their dad had had a heart attack 
since they had seen him last.
In May they said, "Let's visit him,
cuz time's a passing fast."

He doesn't drive, he sold his car
so he'll not come to us.
and we...

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I was alone
Travelling Interstate 80
Following the route of the early Western pioneers 
2900 miles across the midsection of America
Stretching from the East Coast to California
In Utah home to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day...

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Life is a Journey
To my brother and sisters as you travel along the high of life, I want you to keep in your mind the road condition. There is going to be rainy days, sunny...

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For some reason
I really like to drive,
and ever since I was sixteen,
when I get behind the wheel
feel free and alive...
Only once had an accident
when I was seventeen,
pulling out too fast of the driveway,
into my parents...

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