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[saw]

Bill Quick hit his head again
hard on the stones of Eagle Avenue
broken pint of Hiram didn't make him
a walker at all, just a faller

blood spurted
from his neighborly head again
fast like an osprey diving for dinner
pushed my bandanna tight

to his forehead, knew there were
no family members on this island
or any other one, just Ole Bill
his contagious laugh

his stories of pirates
and women with knives
strapped to their legs
that would cut your johnson

as soon as look at you
if you crossed 'em, slice you
in the blink of a setting sun
and laugh like a phantom sailor

Ole Bill, great great grandson
of loyalist Bahamians who fled the crown
that history long since drowned
in the bellow of conch shells

and the cuts from coral reefs
and cheap booze.

[constantine]

sad tale, brother saw. vividly painted

[theirishsea]

You have created a character and a scene and made the poem move with your rich imagistic and word-playing language.

[saw]

thanx dino and danno.........have a great weekend !.....I'm off to climb scaffolding...wahoo !

[saw]

ps. to dino & danno....I was also thinking of weaving these real characters into a piece of fiction, maybe a short story....they were all so interesting, but in some cases unrelated...you're support of the development of them has got me thinking a storyline....thanks again, one thing leads to another.................and so on....

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Steve

An entertaining series, Steve. Yes it could be fiction or part of a short story.  It could also though be a collection of poems such as this one.  Good luck whichever direction you decide to go.

Chris

[saw]

thanx, chris, perhaps a combo...........chapbook of poems and a short story that connects the poems......