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Cowboy Poetry and Western Verse
Little Dick West
Jeff Richards
What made Little Dick West go bad?
He was a homeless waif.
Rolled up his blankets under the stars.
He was a hard working cowboy
when he met Bill Doolin.
Maybe thats what made him go bad.
Maybe he was uncomfortable in his skin.
He appears porky in his photograph.
barrel chest, fat face,
pig eyes full of cross-eyed anger,
black eyebrows,
that stretched across his forehead,
thick black beard and moustache,
hairy as Sasquatch.
Maybe the ladies lowered their parasols,
the kids crawled under the boardwalk,
and the dogs snarled as he lumbered by.
Maybe he was lonely, angry at the world
or maybe simply unlucky
To run with the Doolin-Dalton Gang,
rob banks and trains until Doolin
was felled with 21 buckshot wounds
to the chest.
In 1898 Dick was currying his horse
on a ranch outside Guthrie,
when three lawmen crept up.
He dropped the curry comb,
flashed twin Colts,
but before he could fire,
he was chiseled full of holes.
Poor Little Dick West, I found out later
wasnt fat at all.
He was as gangly as a coyote.
Already dead in the photograph,
He was ripe for burial.
And I thought cowboys were ironic.
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