I watched part of a Western tonight after not having watched one for years.  So far two poems from it and over an hour more to go.  Isn’t it interesting how there is a poem in just about everything.  It’s just a matter of keeping an open ear and observant eye.. maybe?  Sadly, no pics that I’ve found in my work so far for westerns based poetry… going to have to work on that, right?

Long Knife
by Michael Romani

When you've spent your whole life
At the cutting edge of the long knife
Sometimes you stop to question
In those pausing moments of hesitation

If there is enough, just enough, to drink
Or, to ever help you not to think
Of how a lesser man driven to the brink
Would never find quite enough to drink

Or to put away the images of death
Nor, to staunch the bleeding heart in days left
On his knees, hands groping in the desert sand
Tormented by the horror of that one last stand

There's a burn in the hurt felt
A quiet surrender into the hand dealt
The man's whose world depends on the long knife
Questions the sanity of his storied life

There is no cure for this kind of pain
When still breathing if felt like a bane
But, the good captain follows his orders
For a small pension and secure living quarters

Whiling away the hours in whittling and drink
Passing the time in distress and at the brink
Hoping that the quiet moments won't lead him to think
He steadies his nerves with yet another drink

(c) August 17, 2018  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved