A Good Name

[the mingo]

A Good Name

Geronimo was too rich
to be believed
with his no smile wife
& his thin in the ribs pony

you knew by looking
that he had eaten lizards & snakes
roasted or raw
while on the run had drank from cactus
or licked the morning dew off
a stone in passing

a fair player to a fault
spanish, mexican, or gringo
he shot them all alike
but let their horses live
to sell back later or trade for
bullets & food

he was a practicing romantic
with the lightning strikes
and fast fades
he believed in living as
his fathers lived
scorning justification
as he had never sinned

frightened young girls laughed at his toothlessness
young men envied the rifle in his saddle scabbard
he made a page of his own in his enemy's history books

men still call out his name in english
when they jump
into the sky

[Lightning Rod]

I have enough Apache in me to like this piece, mingo
there is something terminally charming about the renegade

[the mingo]

thx,Lightning, & you're right about renegades.

[westcoast]

awesome pome, mingo


~westcoast

[the mingo]

thx for reading,westie

[saw]

nice gallop along the plains...great detail from start to finish....
loved the lizard and snake section....nice read.......

[emel.scott]

frightened young girls laughed at his toothlessness

curious line

invigorating read

[gypsyjoker]

scorning justification
as he had never sinned

when I reply to a poem I like it is because I lost the struggle to just sit on my hands and read. I think that is a paraphrase of something you wrote or saw wrote

a good poem for a good name.

[mnaz]

odd lines here and there,
as befits a nomadic quest..

yeah, sky poetry, big sky verse,
still desert morning dewdrop,
granite and vista, flowering yucca,
before the thorny whirlwind visions...

nice...

[the mingo]

saw ,emel,gypsy, & mnaz, thank you all for reading and saying so.
sincerely, mingo