poem: Derek Williams

No Time For Bravery

The Sundance Kid doesn’t think
of himself
as a gunslinger or thief.

He’s an artist.
The barrels of his pistols
defy gravity,
scrambling its rules.
He doesn’t blink when he shoots,
doesn’t ever miss.

In papers
and on wanted posters,
in lazy cowpoke towns
and rich gold rush outposts—
his reputation
is his name.

He’s never killed a man. He’s
never had to.

Ropes of black smoke billow into
the sky and
the Hole in the Wall Gang
jeers the train closer.

There is a sweetness to robbing
the Union Pacific Railroad
that money can’t satisfy.

Opportunity and greed coalesce
in this harbinger
of true west.

Most of what follows is true.

The safe was brand new.
No threat could coax
a combination
from the expressman
bound by duty and pride.

Butch Cassidy didn’t hesitate,
not even for a moment.

He is the architect
moving the artist to grace.
And while Sundance
stacks the sticks of dynamite,
Butch just
can’t stop smiling.

To know the secret to gambling
you must cheat.
He smiles because
sometimes, oftentimes,
even cheaters lose.

The explosion ricochets
in the canyon.
The gang scatters like poker chips,
scooping at the fluttering bills
with their doffed
hats laughing.

They eek out a living.
Fated men
who know extravagance
and poverty
and little between.

The gunshots come quickly
and two fall
as the sheriff’s posse
crest the hill.

Butch and Sundance flee.

After being chased many hours
they are smudges
on a bleeding landscape.
Alone with
the sunset, it is slick
with their sweat.

Their horses
bear down hard
on the horizon, trying
to catch it.

A student of America’s shorthand history, DEREK JG WILLIAMS grew up studying comic books and the backs of baseball cards. His writing has been featured at venues throughout the Northeast and published both in print and on the web. He is a proponent of handclaps in songs, thinks the designated hitter should be banned from baseball, and is currently shopping his first full length collection of poems to publishers while touring to celebrate the release of his self-titled EP of poetry. He’s a busy guy, you can find him at www.derekjgwilliams.com.