‘Too poor to pay,
too rich to quit.’
– Velvet Clark, (“Gunsight Ridge”, 1957)
With an extra hour gained between Daylight
and Standard time, my body’s clock rings early
to find the black and white ethics of yesteryear
still resonate in both sides of my brain.
Left-handed gun, a piano-playing miner
measures himself with wealth despite
his gentle talent, and so it went in those years,
rebuilding after the war with Joel McRae.
Dinner up the road with pre-teen, twin town boys
revisiting ranch repairs and guns, dubbed
‘Wrangler’ and ‘Straus’, one left and one right-handed
when they shoot, serve drinks to us all
as the fire licks fresh vegetables and swordfish
from the coast. Both love to eat, but lefty
writes poetry, listening to every word I say.
drycrikjournal 