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A Journey (on Foot) Through Hostile Lands


by Darryl Price


Love comes and goes as it pleases. Plant 
lives matter you know. Isn't it so 
obvious? I'm sure you've noticed or 
felt like you've been here before. Maybe 
forever. Just ask any hand-held 
camera or open book. Well. How 

many times can we identify 
with our betrayers before we are 
the real brave ones? Everything that's true
is on its way to the other end 
of another miracle of faith. 
Like the sound of laughter. Life keeps on 

like that.  Like sweet tangerines. Sometimes 
poets notice the color, the smell, 
the rot. Like crystal stars when all the 
underwater sheets are finally 
thrown off. Sometimes lovers can attest. 
It can be just about that simple 

for some I'm told. That cruel. That lonely. 
That true for the moment. Maybe if 
you're Paul McCartney you can go stand 
inside the wildflowers longer than 
any other man alive. But in 
the end even he must move or be
 
cast out. Into the fires. Love comes but 
it leaves like a light in the pouring 
rain. Everything is crying to be 
reborn even before the last song 
is halfway over. Love goes through you 
eventually without goodbye
 
because it cannot stand being still. 
As long as you dance it will dance with 
you and not kill you. Its an art and 
just like anything else worth doing, 
it passes through all of us looking 
for its one true way home, which happens 

to be everywhere and nowhere at 
all. We're all the static now and then.
The moment you are less than present 
in its presence you will be left with 
nothing more than the glowing spark you 
came into this world with. But that is 

sadly not enough. I'm told. Covered  
in our own blinking signals at the 
smallest of baby blue skies, we want 
to receive what we already know 
from someone we like well enough to 
slow all the way down for. We want to

be let in the forest with the rest 
of the thieves.Love wakes and goes where it 
pleases.Will you still take my hand? Will
you join us? The words I should have said
are always still waiting there. That's what
I know as I leave it far behind.    



Bonus Poems:


You Might Be One of Us

by Darryl Price


When we are done fighting 
this war our global hearts 
will likely be broken 
because so many of 
our friends will have died. Who's
to say vanity had 
anything to do with 
our careless doom or not? 
They'll only keep building 
awful weapons against 

us again and again. 
And we will be pushed to 
the last heartbreaking brink 
before we've had enough 
again. But new children 
will be the next soldiers. 
New children will be the 
worst villains of all time. 
New children could become 
sacred healers. Children 

who come to the rescue 
of millions. The ones who'll 
imagine peace as more 
than an afterthought. Or  
harbor old grudges and 
misunderstandings and 
turn them into hatreds. 
We poets only sing 
our complaints because we'd 
like to hear you come up 

with a different kind 
of hopeful depression. 
We still love to look at 
the stars and feel very 
small and think that it is 
all a very fine wine 
after all. Everything 
doesn't always have to  
be explained. And then there's 
you. I wouldn't want this 

world to explode with you 
in it. That's a bitter 
bite of the same old slice, 
but I just couldn't live 
without saying it. That's 
all this poem is for, 
to hold you close to me,
it's for you. It always has 
been and always will be.  
Oh close your eyes and try. 




I'm Bored With Your Tomorrow Discounts

by Darryl Price


Thank you for your support. I
just want to walk in the park.
Your failing infrastructures,
your college savings plan. As
I look around all I see

are your marmalade cowboy
politics. I just want to
walk in the park. Your online
contests, your easy chicken
dinners, vehicle safety
features. I'm sick to death of

your limited time offer.
Just let me walk in the park.
Your expert advice. Shadow
always looming over me. 
Give me breathing. Give me bees.

I just want to walk in the 
park. Genuflection to the
dark angel of our nature.
It's gross. I just want to walk
the park. Give me the shoulders
of Venus. Try coming down. 
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