the last cowboy

"The Last Cowboy" 

There's never been a man like Grandpa Hayes

'Cause all the tales about him must be true:

Broke sixteen horses less’n seven days

And stole the Rancher’s girl in only two.

He lived for eighty years ‘cause he was skilled

A wicked shot who never came out worse

His .32 was from a man he killed

The only one who’d ever shot him first.

A family curse what made him ride so fast

‘Cause lightnin struck his daddy graveyard dead--

They say it turned his uncle into ash

And then it got his cousin in the head.

So Grandpa spent his life outrunnin clouds

Just lookin for a truth he never found.

photo cred

ballet shoes

"Ballet Shoes"

I slip my tender toes into your familiar bind,

your pink laces twist up my legs

and animate me.

En pointe, my toes are perched upon their boxes,

and your silken arms embrace my ankles

as if I walk on nothing.

Fuetes swing you around and I am a circus ride,

turned into painted porcelain,

a spinning doll.

I spend months with you, scuffing your soles, tearing your cloth,

burning your laces, stretching your lips.

We become old.

One day they will put us both in a tiny fabric box,

only to spin when it opens, only to dance

at the soft tinkling of a bell.

photo cred