brittle hands
at the christmas table
applaud my mother
for bringing me forth.
that's willie all right -
the murray ears;
is that his sleepy eye?
ten lifetimes ago he enlisted.
mad about horses, numbers,
ranching in the argentine;
a quartermaster-sergeant,
unhorsed at twenty-eight.
outnumbered -
I holster my six-gun,
contribute
the ghost of a smile.