The Sheriff was a client true
but one of only very few
A ‘good time girl’ I said I was
so I could remain my own boss

.

Four other girls all worked for me
they paid their dues, I let them be
We plied our trade in ‘Bar of Gold’
our bodies charms are what we sold

.

Some outlaws came into the bar
got drunk on liquor and went too far
Sheriff Grant arrived too late
his bad timing sealed his fate

.

An outlaw slapped me so I bled
Grant stepped in – they shot him dead
I grabbed Grant’s gun, their mouths to shut
they shot me three times in the gut

.

Within a minute I was cold
‘You’ll be fine’ a lie was told
My sight was blurring by the second
‘She’ll die soon’ another reckoned

.

Explosions going on around
I felt vibrations through the ground
On my back, I lay it seemed
I slept I woke I slept I dreamed

*

‘Hold on sir, just hang on in’
I heard myself ask ‘Did we win?’
‘Yes we did we’re out the rut
but you took one in the gut’

.

A helicopter landed near
my medic cried ‘He’s over here’
I felt my body being lifted
as to the ‘chopper’ I was shifted

.

When we took off my eyes closed
full of morphine I then dozed
My thoughts strange and misguided
another life with mine collided

.

How can it be I was assumin’
that I once lived life as a woman?
The medic said ‘Sir when you rant
you talk about some Sheriff Grant’

***

 

 This is a selection from Thrills and Chills: An Anthology of Poetry – Volume 5.