SNAKE EYES AND BOXCARS

  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)