It is always amazing to read the words of homeless artists. Folks like Billy the Kid may look rough on the outside but inside he is a poet with a soul deep and wide, and despite the hardship of his life he is compelled to write. We are grateful that he is letting us share his work on our website.
An Old Horse:
A Conversation Between Two Horses
By Billy the Kid
Raspberries! I’m just a ole horse good for nothin but a bar of soap.
Rode soar old horse?
I’m tired, I wanta go
They said pasture life would be paradise
Grass makes me belch
Grain makes me fart
Been 20 years since my lips were pulled to see my teeth
Some spell back ago?
They have me to wear a pucky bag and rubber hoof cups
Ya know, for that drop and clop thing.
Still in pasture life.
How was it before?
I’ll never forget when I ran for the hero after the bandit
Pranced for the queen in the parade
Pulled the family to town and careful for the kid ride to school.
I don’t do them things no more
but they watch over me ’cause of those things I did
Oh, me, I’m worth nothin
I otta go to the soap factory
History at the Icehouse
By Billy the Kid
The last icetrain to leave the icehouse
Had
2 cars for the mountains
2 cars for the valleys
2 cars for the plains
2 cars for the fruit
2 cars for the veggies
and 2 cars for the soda pop
It was overheard that the reporter asked the engineer, “what will you do now?”
To which he replied, “Save my money”
The reporter asked, “why?”
To which the engineer replied, “no need in spending money on something you don’t need.”
Just then the conductor stepped by
And the reporter asked him, for the record, “what will happen next?”
To which the conductor replied, “Daddy’s steelwheels with an air lifeline broke at the knuckle, pulled apart at the gladhand.”
The reporter was confused
But then the foreman said, “the new ways of life have bypassed the old and the old ways no longer work”
There was a pause as the reporter caught up as the engineer then added, “life as I know it has run out of steam.”
Tags: poetry