Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office


                                 Out Where the West Begins

                                 In the Drugstore Parking Lot

An old man creaks his body out of the pickup
With boots on the ground he's got his swagger back
He taps a Marlboro out of a cardboard box
And lights it with a manly Zippo (clink)

He’s practiced his technique since ‘66
A ‘way-cool curl of silver-white cowboy smoke
Rising up above the pickup cab and into the West
Along with a phlegm-rich boots-and-saddles cough

His wife’s inside the store, a-getting’ his pills
He can’t quite manage that distance himself

‘Way back when he was so ////’ cool, you know?