Poetry about Poetry ... original or previously published poetry, December 2000

Jesse James Joyce

The day's been as glum as a poet's accountant.
A little more adventure wouldn't go amiss,
so I'll saddle-up my poems and head 'em all out West...

I'll be The Lone Rhymer,
gunning for maverick metaphors
and vigilante verses
with silver-bullet six-shooters.
(Who was that masked muse?)

Or dressed up all in black atop a palamino,
catching Davy Crockett's hat
falling at the Alamo.

Poem,
Poem on the range...

Where desperado couplets
dressed in ponchos
and sombreros
pass out on tequilas
in El Paso haciendas.

I'll be Jesse James Joyce
with a Stevie Smith and Wesson
ambushing the Pony Express
for Seamus Heaney First Editions.

I'll pow-wow with Cochise
inside a ring of fire,
trading buffalo hides
for bows of burning gold
and arrows of desire.

Several boys named Sioux
will jostle for a view,
Sitting Bull will have to stand
to see above the crowd
as I read aloud
Custer's Last Stanza.

(originally published in "Stations of the Heart" and "The Scottish Book Collector".)
Eddie Gibbons

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Updated November 2000

Tim Love