Proverbs 31:6. "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts."


I met you half dead in the desert ....
A drop of blood down the side of your head
Red lips and
dark haired killer
(whispered)
"Agua?" through the heat
Glimmering pistol handles
My canteen with a cross
Fresh filled at river
Cool and sweet

the last thing I remembered
was the taste of cherry
*****
& his daring death kiss
this ******* headache
kills
& I'll speak my own
broken spanish
to save the only life
I got left

Dust deals heat to the back of my throat
Sweat is thick on my forehead
You take the silver flask
As the hem of your dress lifts just enough
She was the devil
Like a lone roaming coyote looking for a meal
The silent circling vulture
The rattlesnake bite
The scorpion sting
She drinks as if she has been lost
A drop of sweat
Rolls down the back of my neck

I was terrified to say more
as if he already knew
I was lying somehow, some way
his eyes were that of a
cautious man
eyes you always trusted
even if they didn't
trust you
I could tell I was bleeding now
dizzy desert
sand on my tongue
sand in my head
& all these cautious eyes
around me

She seemed to sway
Like a **** in the wind
She was gonna need bandages
For the cut on her head
I had half a bottle of liquor
In the sadlebags
She's dressed in dust
Wiping her lips with her hand
Cherry lipped
Tense as a jackrabbit
Ready to run


Its funny how you can
shoot a man in the
knee
& he'll tell you all
his secrets
but those ****** eyes
were leaving me wildly merciful
& in a blur of blood and sweat and dirt
I gave him the gun tied to my thigh
& took the shirt tied to his waist
it was my new wig
or my new pillow in my desert bed
god, let me sleep forever
with this stranger who has my gun
how can you tell if you're in shock?
will the sky ring with magenta
in the prelude to my death
or will it be quiet as this strange, strange
stranger?

Her gun always seemed to get me into trouble

Since I have taken it by the handle

There's been a strange wind on the east

Nights I try to sleep

It calls up from the holster

Speaking in tongues of dead men

Souls I had to deliver


Nothing can compare though
To the nightmares of you
In which We stole away in wagons
Flaming arrow full
I saw her eyes
In my mind
Burnt
Like a fever dream
Full of liquor bottles
Full of bullets
Full of her thighs
I could not tear my eyes away
No matter how I tried
You pulled me deep
Into velvet seas
Of blue
and Green
The taste of gin
The taste of whiskey
Beautiful and sweet