FOR C.A. WILES
As I was saying to C.A. the other day
Well actually I wasn’t
but wished I would have been
If I had known he was dying any day
I would have said
You are my twice removed
and now about to be removed
connection to Buffalo Bill
where your father worked
the Wild West Show
I made note of it in a poem you might recall
And I would have said
I want you to know I am as proud
to have shaken your hand as his
And I would have said
You are a prince among men
and among princes
For, though Shakespeare
may not have foretold it
there may be as many
in Texas as in Denmark
I would have said all that
or met and not said it at all
And yet C.A.
if you and I should meet
some ghost lit night
as you step down
from your ghost rider rounds
to ponder your own
sweet moon blanched skull
as a princely poet just might do
I would say I’m sure along with you
and every poet here
Alas poor Yorick
we did not know you well
We did not know you well enough