The man with deepset eyes.
\nby cricketjeff on April 5, 2008.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved
\nThe piano player stopped mid-bar,
\nAnd every head looked round,
\nTo see a stranger come from far
\nWith treasure he had found.
\nAn empty man with eyes deep set
\nAnd danger in his heart.
\nTo find what pleasures he could get
\nThen silently depart.<\/p>\n
He slammed his palm down on the bar
\nAnd left a glint of gold,
\nThen wiped his hand across his scar
\nAnd what a tale he told.
\nOf finding riches in the stream,
\nOf men who’d rob him blind,
\nThe way they died, we heard them scream,
\nHe painted in the mind.<\/p>\n
A shadow fell across the bar,
\nBlack Douglas looking down.
\nA mood the shade of molten tar,
\nHe bared his teeth so brown.
\n“My brothers were the men you killed,
\nThe gold you hold is mine,
\nNo Douglas blood should have been spilled
\nI’ll kill you then I’ll dine.”<\/p>\n
The stranger there turned not one hair,
\nSaid “friend, resume your seat.
\nUnless your brother’s fate you’d share
\nTake up your spoon and eat.”
\nBlack Douglas saw he wore no gun,
\nSo felt no hint of fear,
\nThe dreadful deed would soon be done,
\nHis fortune very near.<\/p>\n
The deepset eyes had seen it all,
\nTheir owner knew the plan;
\nDouglas was broad and very tall
\nA mountain of a man.
\nThe greed for gold would kill again,
\nA curse he knew too well,
\nHe’d seen it in a dozen men
\nAnd sent them all to hell.<\/p>\n
The gun looked small in Douglas’ hand,
\nHe did not get to aim.
\nHe died and could not understand
\nThe knife that was to blame.
\nThe stranger asked for whore and drink
\nAnd took them both upstairs.
\nWhile we were left to sit and think
\nThe barman made repairs.<\/p>\n
The stranger left before the dawn,
\nThe bills were fully paid.
\nWe buried Douglas deep in scorn
\nProspecting plans were laid.
\nI found the stream, but never told
\nJust slowly worked the seam.
\nI’ve built my life on stranger’s gold
\nAnd now I live his dream.<\/p>\n
Author notes
\nIn ballad meter (alternating tetrameter\/termeter) but with doubled stanzas to
\nallow slightly longer ideas. Quite short at only 14 quatrains and fully rhymed
\n(abab rather than xaxa) but I hope reminiscent of the many Western Ballads I
\nhave always loved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The man with deepset eyes. by cricketjeff on April 5, 2008.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved The piano player stopped mid-bar, And every head looked round, To see a stranger come from far With treasure he had found. An empty man with eyes deep set And danger in his heart. To find what pleasures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9742,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2590","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8919,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2590\/revisions\/8919"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}