Swung Poems

Sixties music was so sublime.
It was bell bottomed trousers and Motown time.
The Tracks of My Tears and Ooh Baby, Baby
Our dances to our parents seemed crazy.

We would slow grind to Smokey’s croon
or do the jerk to a Supremes’ tune.
Afro hairdos...Read More

Dear Covid-19, 
Life was a rainbow till you came and replaced the chirping of happy birds, the laughter with our families and friends with the wailings of the ambulances’ siren 

The swing on our playgrounds is swung only by the...Read More

there was a woodsman called jacks
who swung the worlds sharpest axe
one or two chops thats all
giant fir trees would fall
that's the fun fallen fir facts...Read More

How am I now with only memory of you to survive.... for was through your love alone did I come to breathe,  drawing first taste of life while in your arms and at your lips 

The glory of Sun’s...Read More

You can hide behind flags, or cultures and such
On the pretense of happy long years
But you are no more, than a low-class whore
Who sells out his skills to his peers
They see you for what you promised them then
and milked you...Read More

A beautiful, perfect, autumn day it was. 
The gold and red sneaking in the Central Park leaves as it 
always does. 
I wanted to stay home with my wife and son. 
But realized there were bills to 
be paid and...Read More

For merely a hunch or a hint of a kiss
I nearly was lunch for a hit on a miss
She shimmied for me in a short pirate skirt
No army of men was a match for this flirt

I started to flee in...Read More

Death stood by the road side 
and swung his hand to get a ride 
Many stopped by, but was never favored 
And some came, but he never entered 

When the road sirened my coming, 
he rushed and placed a checkpoint...Read More

Winnie, wild-eyed, went insane and sang
“Happy Birthday” in the rain, while she
washed away her bloody pain.

Now all day long she sings that song,
she sings it loud, she sings it strong,
walled in where she does not belong.

For much unlike her maddened...Read More

The stench of blood so thick you could taste it
Raivel swallowed hard amongst the slashed
corpses of terrified souls littering the field
A harvest of death gleams and sparkles
as the crimson dripped from his swords edge
Duty is duty, never question, everyone dies
Untangle...Read More

I bear the scars of axes
forgotten loves
lost rings consumed
in fiery conflagration
rooted in the past
leafless in the present
reaching into the future.
Wars have torn me
taken my offspring
clouded the world
children have hugged me
nestled in my outstretched arms
swung from my limbs
clung to my strength
as...Read More

Cont'd from Seesaw into Space: Part 1

Round the Sun I catapulted 
and away from it I sped.
Then I saw another planet.  
Mars! I thought — the one that's red.

Mars was crisscrossed by long channels. 
On each pole was a...Read More

I look at my words.
Are you the best?
Not yet.
But soon.
They begin square dancing in my brain.
Twirling and laughing.
Their skirts flaring out.
Grabbed up by their partners.
Swung in the air.
I see panties and I laugh.
Reminds me of simpler times
When old women danced...Read More

I still remember that little girl
who didn’t like sharing her toys,
but swirled in the hurricane
and snatched away her joys.

I still remember that little girl,
singing blissfully all day long;
but rapped in the hurricane
and she forgot her happy song.

I still remember that...Read More

Part 2

With a height above the field less than 
his body’s length and only seconds away
to his kill, the great bird swung his wings
back and upwards in a dramatic gesture, 
breaking his speed much like a jet reverses 
its engines...Read More

When I started walking
On a road lying so calm,
Housing moon & stars
the sky painted a chuckle, 
A deep silence stepped with me
and made every step memorable. 

When I started talking 
with darkness and sky,
A breeze came with me
singing a divine...Read More

It began with a tiny black hole in my mind,
bit by bit it gravitated me into the void;
making me a slave to silence.
I had never seen anything more powerful,
perhaps it was a god;
a deity of darkness or hell.
I was immured...Read More

Long before the whispers
fell down 
upon your solemn shoulders   
as with new day dew's droplets   
dangling so delicate, so free   
  
I heard all about you   
what was resting within ...Read More

concentric circles clouds 
mushy mists growl
tainted tarred twain
epileptic ensconced spray
rustic rims raved
adapting aura's aid

mystic mood swung
lurching lousy lust
taming torpedic tongue

callous Cherub called
vile veins' gores
dripping damped draws

scrunched syllables smoothened
haggard hierarchy heightened. 
     19:11:14:11:30...Read More

I saw a snowflake drift silently past my window . . . 
and I watched as it danced and turned . . . 
It was so real ~
so full of life!
    Finally, I could stand it no...Read More

the free state is actually not free
casting my line into the many manipulations
worked by dust devils and hierophants
gambling their grunt wages on my young ass
like cowboys on a cattle free vacation
unwelcome by all rational standards
it's a new skill set for...Read More

He ignored the warning signs and moved carefully forward and backward

In the rocking chair of swept memories and went for a wild white knuckle ride 

Swayed but not faltering although he swung like a junky on amphetamine pills

Soaked in recollections...Read More

To my terra of roots
my allegiance I vow
I wallow in your fruits
and to your flag I bow.

Dream not till wake of dawn
beaming sun light I wait
burst of glee of no bourn
the feels of the soul, sate.

Awe chills into my spine
as...Read More

The Florida of My Youth – Highways and Byways
By Franklin Price
10/17/2019

The highways and the byways of Brevard when I was young
Were void of any four lanes, no interstates among
Highway 50, was the only road that went out to the west
Orlando...Read More

The tomcat squeal of a deceiving tongue.
We are scolded
with cattle-prods of sound.
Swung upon chains of echoes,
nailed to aria’s with rusty spikes.

Bird of a thousand jeers,
a hundred memes and parodies.
will you shut up already.

...Read More