PRAIRIE BOY
(for W. O. Mitchell)
Canlit wild child
Homeboy emeritus
Frail and failing when I met him
Under Merna’s watchful eye
I came to appraise a gun
Held on his blanketed lap
Not worth much so we talked
About books and writing
He kindly offered to read my work
But I saw Merna frown
(No Bill save your strength)
So I left that on the table
He said you only needed one thing
To succeed as a writer
He pointed at me a gnarled finger
Hemorrhoids he cackled
Put your ass in the chair
Every day and write
A line from For Art’s Sake
I later learned
But he gave me a copy
Of his Ladybug book
And wrote inside it
May your hemorrhoids expand
Butt-sore as I write this
Knowing now how right he was
He died within a few months
Gone off to his own Vanishing Point
Leaving a prairie boy
To write about a prairie boy
Who wrote about a prairie boy
You put us on the map back home Bill
We won’t forget you
I read your biography
Your kids did a hell of a job with it
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