I Corral                                     

OK correlative

            relative which sort?

            once removed

six shooters at Old Towne No. 536

Posse

the stuntman jumps to his mount

from the roof of the false-fronted building

on the movie set

            stock footage    clip art              image bank

gun draw

            straight

            shooter, fire and a belt of smoke around the gun man

gun clip art, pointer       holster

gratuitous violence        outlaw

            that red splash, sticky pool is blood

            bloody balance sheet    in the red

wham!

            thrown punch, socked jaw

                        Sacagawea

                        Moose Jaw, Moose Factory

                        the prairies        Winnipeg          Regina

            armed

            someone reels his arm up into the air, warding,

            hitting air, his hat falling away

the business of men, vengeance, vigilance, the village fathers

            due diligence, summary of terms,

            banker with a pocket watch in his vest calls a note

bars and borders

the movies, and now to the saloon, where the girls were never that pretty,

but I guess the stuff about cowboys taking a bath was right

would like to think this is somehow related to the deleterious effect of the military presence in the west

            camp followers

to the U.S. Army

cavalry             calvary             INRI

cavalcade         of Vegas showgirls

                                    all those legs, that flesh

                                    eye                   coral

cavalcade         a pompous march of used car salesmen

                        strings of triangular flapping flags

                        game shows      a new car!       horsepower

                                                                        hemi, turbo

General Custer, what he didn’t see        new to me, brand name

death    little      big        horn

                                    Crying of Lot 49

literature at least raises a flag warning

            hoisted petard

Old West

Far West

Der Wide Western       wild wild

                                    (opposite The East

                                                Orient)             left

                                                                        right

four horses pull a stage                          center

            formed, fitted wheels                             top left

            rested on leather “thoroughbraces”        top right

            gentle rocking                                       top middle

at one time the only images                                middle left

allowed at work                                                middle right

                        Wells Fargo                              bottom left

horses pull through the days                              bottom right

                        buy, deliver cold                       bottom middle

and at night the watchmen

ride, equally spaced                                          distributed diagonally

smaller to the horizon line

using somebody’s perspective

                        spectacles

                        eye corral
 

the horses are in canyon country

the man in the coonskin cap takes aim

                        buckskins

Annie Oakley               annie1.bmp

blacksmith banging on an anvil

                        hammer, anvil, ear bones

                        near the eye, two

his counterpart is baking in an iron stove

that was manufactured

“home made” bread

not home made / formerly / in The East

pages and pages of stereotypes

                        two eyes           stereopticon

                                                hand colored

myths manifest  gold and land investment

            railroaded no trains in the images

            multiple marriage no

beauty in black silhouette, purple background flat

crescent moon and horse / indistinct figure assumed to be

a beautiful girl it could be many any not

any but / disfigured / nuzzle

                                    the animal still loves

                                                wants food

vultures three not buzzards?

trailing distinct contrails over the flat lavender

trail                               tails

woman horse    woman spin      woman wash

woman in a purple dress is she beautiful?

seen from behind she hits a triangle        bell

scene                                        ting-a-ling-ling

                                                Chang and Eng
 

Bell

dinner

not the toll of the bell

nor the toll of a bell, belle

                        able A

            blend bumble bless

grace “grace”

we thank for these thy

since the non-Christian heathen

Old West Far West Der Wide Western

Victorian get up disguises

            can-can girls, “squaws,” indian in a top hat

the red barn is in the distance with daisy-shaped windmill

            cheap paint                               water pump water politics

woman churns butter

(churns buttermilk to make butter)

her hand on the handle, up and

down, forcing into the sloshing liquid

in kindergarten we passed around

an emptied and washed peanut butter jar filled

with buttermilk  around a seated circle on the floor

                                    shaking, and a few lumps reward for an

                                    hour’s work

hard-to-find unpasteurized

where does all that butterfat skimmed from skim go?

in the city or country “The Butterchurn” a more likely name

for a junque boutique or “down home” restaurant

the kinds where farmhands don’t eat

                                    exist

the pie is in the window, steam rising

and my husband says black & white Andy Griffith soothes his soul
 

Express

five horses against three hills and 11 shrubs

bison

hot sun rocky outcropping “dog days”

no prairie dogs and most of the hills are

two hours drive from LA dry scrub no one had

to poor sense to farm until irrigated Colorado River Hoover Dam

stealing from the watershed aquifer at great expense borne by taxpayers

wild horses       mustang sally

            couldn’t drag me away

                        woman on horse

                        pony car

ride the wild horse        white

            Mony, mony, ride the pony, clap, clap

            BONY, money, Manny Hanny

                                    Manufacturers Hanover

                                                Trust

tame the wild horse

            saddleman

you be trigger

            slap the gorgeous flank

            zoetrope gallop

                        down hill break neck speed

the girl rolls a hoop with a stick

the boy fishes

the cowboy ropes a cow, lasso round in the air

the cowboy ropes a steer, dust rising under hooves

the sheep’s pink skin once the fluffy white wool is sheared,

the animal docile, reclining as the last of the fur is razored

from its rump

sheepmen vs. cattlemen

                        drovers

                        doggies