brittle hands and birthday mirth
applaud my mother for bringing me forth.
that's willie all right -
the murray ears;
is that his sleepy eye?
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, move
as one with the ghost of a smile.
