Dance of the Indecisive

This poem, and many others, appear in my poetry book, Digging to China, available now from Sweatshoppe Publications.

Dance with the angels

to the beat of Heaven.

World's collide

Dance with the demons

to the beat of my pride.

Worlds die

copyright 1999 Justin W. Price.

This poem was originally written back in 1999. I was working in a cash vault for a major bank and I was struggling with a decision. I remember pulling out a deposit slip and scribbling down these six simple lines. It's one of the few poems I never revised and have never revised.

When this was written, I was playing in a band called Royalty Wears Thorns. We were sort of screamo and math rock before screamo and math rock came into being. As such, we were universally hated, but we had a lot of fun. This little number, these six lines, made their way into a song. A seven minute song. There was an additional verse added written by my friend TJ, who was the primary singer/screamer in the band. It was "Now your world dies/Watch as it fades away/Now your world dies/ It's all gonan burn anyway."

This verse was a tremendous addition, though it did not really fit with what I meant when I wrote this song. Or did it?:

Dance with the angels

to the beat of Heaven.

World's collide

Dance with the demons

to the beat of my pride.

Worlds die

Now your world dies

Watch as it fades away

Now your world dies

It's all gonna burn anyway.

Picture that being yelled and with chunky guitars, and you get the picture.

Thanks for Reading.

A freelance writer, Honors student and Gover Prize finalist, Justin W. Price (aka, PDXKaraokeGuy) considers himself a poet first and foremost but is also a skilled short story, biographer and humor writer. His poetry collection, Digging to China, will be released February 2nd, 2013 by Sweatshoppe Publications and is currently available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and your local bookseller.

His work will also be featured in Best New Fiction (2014 edition), and has appeared previously in the Rusty Nail, eFiction, eFiction Humor, The Crisis Chronicles, The Hellroaring Review and the Bellwether Review. He currently serves as managing editor of eHorror Magazine and the Bridge online newspaper. He previously served as the poetry and correspondence editor for The Bellwether Review.

He works as a freelance writer, editor, and ghost writer, and is working towards his Ph.D. He lives in a suburb of Portland, Oregon with his wife, Andrea, and their labradoodle, Bella.

Please visit his profile page for more information. Thanks!