Tumbleweed Billy and One Eyed Sam

Tumbleweed Billy And One Eyed Sam Banked off jagged hills, pushed on by memory Cause and effect took turns churning the sidewinders Tumbleweed Billy and One Eyed Sam (The patron Saint of snake eyes) Dragged down from on high by a freak flood Through swollen gorges flushed with raging waters From melted mountain snow with a long way to go Two cowpokes gathered up by ancient storms without warning Compounding the Pounding past the sandy canyonous rocks Crashing through dams along the flooding passage Tumbleweed Billy and his one eyed friend rolled into town They came to rest at Rusty Bottom, a dusty town Released their grip on a sturdy timber log That brought them there all wet and muddied With wind against their backs That swept them up to view the Last Chance Saloon Looming over there This brought them to their feet to mossy over They moved like prestidigitation fakes, hankering for a drink Taking whiskey down like magic water Then set out their pedestrian plan there on the table To take this western town down by gambling pranks Quick digits formed their sleight of hand Children suddenly appeared before the strangers Seemingly from nowhere on the action The two cowpokes glanced back at them like spies Sam scared them with his missing eye Covered by a black patch, looking kinda pirate like The other clouded, milky white, piercing, with limited sight Billy grants the young ones wishes on the spot to settle them Magic to be perfected and performed above a pending storm He rolls one die. A one comes up. A snake eye An omen more visible than not This made the children fear an awful lot Dice played a major role for his desires and devices He kissed them twice for luck then vanished in their cast Tumbleweed Billy rolled out of Rusty Bottom Town Taking his dice and the bad eyed man In a singular milky white last lost glance around On the same south winds now gone from town Both sidewinders de-materialized, vanished in that instance As though they never existed Invisible, never seen before, never seen again, as foe or friend They disappeared As for the children; who gambled on the chance of magic Got exactly what they asked And what was granted when they first wished it For the two to disappear Tumbleweed Billy and Sam were gone as quickly as they came And no one really missed them or their game That is; their tricks, dice and way of life Their little slice of paradise 9/16/14 Cowboys in the badlands – Poetry contest