STAGGER LEE AND BILLY D’LYON ON EARTH AND IN
HELL
1.
No game on earth
quick as craps
dollars down
dice tumble
points made
or not
but
money
grabbed up.
Players best be
sober and sharp
that night
under a street light
and yellow moon
Billy D'Lyon was
Stagger Lee
was not
and when they were done
Billy adjourned to the bar-room
with a handful of greenbacks
and Stagger Lee's brand new Stetson hat.
Couple things quicker than craps -
crazy and bullets.
Stagger Lee steps into the bar-room
calls, "Billy, yo…"
Billy
hands up palms out
says, “Oh, no…”
Smokeless .44
Stagger Lee shoots poor Billy down
Billy clutches at air
slams
against high gloss mahogany
slumps
to dirt black
scuffed black
heel gouged
bar room floor
neck on the rail
hat pushed away
one eye ball
from half his head
staring straight up to nowhere
all glassy and dead.
Stagger Lee drops the .44
retrieves his Stetson
dusts its brim
walks out those swinging doors
and steps right up, ladies and gents,
to the scaffold gallows
like it was church
on Sunday morning –
‘Scuse me, sir
Howdy, Ma’am
Wouldn’t want to be late, Reverend
Stagger Lee
looks down at his boots
bows his head
when the hangman takes his hat
and thinks -
Ain’t nothin’ finer than a Stetson
Ain’t nothin’ colder than this cold wind
Ain’t no forgiveness till hell freezes over
And there ain't nothin' slower
than this goddamn trap door…
BAM!
2.
Billy D’Lyon
half his head
blowed away
did not go to heaven
Whoever thought he would?
Bill dropped into hell
Stagger Lee
dropped
into thin air
and just as fast
ended up in hell
as well.
Heaven…Hell
Earth between
time’s a funny thing
Billy might’a been gone
a New York minute
but
in hell-time
that was a life-time
and in hell-time
Billy made a big name
for himself.
The devil that cheated
and beated
Stag O’Lee
owned
the biggest
most ornate
and prosperous
saloon whorehouse and gambling den
on the cold gray plain of Hades.
Through Billy’s
swinging doors
inscribed as of old -
(abandon hope… the house always wins)
neck-stretched
adam’s apple bobbing
bare headed
Stag Lee steps in
and steps up
to a green felt table
in time
to watch flames
fly
off a hot set of bones
ricocheteding
from wall to wall
through all the constellations
snake eyes to boxcars
and back up
into
the
diamond flash
right hand
of one -
Billy, a.k.a., Hell’s D’Lion.
Mr. Lee aims a look at Billy
recognition, of course, on both sides
grins
lays his money
on the no-pass line
Billy half-grins back
and the roll does commence
Bill huffs steam-engine heat
to warm those ivories
tombstones clack
in Bill’s big right hand
Hell time shifts
into strobe time
Flash!
Billy’s arm and hand
swing under and up
Flash!
Bill’s hand opens
dice fly
Flash!
dice hit the table
(close up)
tumblin’ dice
Flash!
time
converts
to
time
and sure as
4 plus 3
5 plus 2
6 plus 1
all
equal
7
Stagger Lee
flips out
and
Flips!
that table over
Fuck you, Billy D
says
Stagga Lee
your crooked game
has come to an end
reaches for his smokeless .44
but Mr. Lee
lost that gun
a million years before
Billy
just smiles
with his whole half face
removes his gray felt Stetson hat
kindly says
Take this back, Mr. Stagger Lee
you’ll have no argument with me
Hell begins to freeze
specters realize
this was no fight man or ghost
would ever win.
Stagger Lee and Billy D’Lyon
all of a sudden
best-of-friends
hearty hale and arms-around
step up to the bar
drink some fire
water down
Stagger Lee gulps forever
adam’s apple jerkin’ like a monkey on a stick
Billy D. loses half his drink out half his head
Hell freezes over
time
like one late die
tips
click
and that is the story
of Stagger Lee & Billy D’Lyon
on earth and in hell
Amen.
RW/Seattle/Oct 2012-April 2018
(skull dice: belaa; "diamond" dice: swarovski)
