Southpaw Joe   Southpaw Joe was none to slow, when it come to runnin' wild. You'd a thought that boy was raised up just a hair past spoiled.   A cow licked head without a brain, to direct that heathen child. Rarin' back and whirlin' like a banshee when its riled   his mamma was an Amazon whose teeth had been sharp filed. Next to his dad, the grizzly bear's growl was fairly mild.   When Joe was just ten years old his outlook had been styled. The devil twisted wrong from right and had this kid beguiled.   He ran for years through badlands, where his bad deeds were stockpiled. His luck ran out in Denver, where he was pistol whipped, then trialed.   But no jail could hold that heathen, as he busted out he smiled. Then fate stepped up one day, and right beside him sidled.   A snake in the grass he didn't see, bit him till he idled. Good folks buried him, and on his mound the rocks were piled.   Southpaw Joe lay cold, till in hell his bones were boiled.

©Steve Dirksen