When
my father
was a boy
in the 1920’s
Wyatt Earp
was still alive
riding back lots
in Hollywood
a stuntman
with a gun
looking for trouble—
when cameras rolled
he was there
in case a fight
broke out
or when kids crowded
Tom Mix—
once a lawman
always a lawman
couldn’t help himself—
at the deli
on Fairfax
old timers said
he sat with his back
to the wall
just in case
or made people move—
he didn’t want to be caught
like Bill Hickok
holding a dead man’s
pastrami

John Stupp is the author of the 2015 collection Advice from the Bed of a Friend (by Main Street Rag). He has lived and worked in various states as a jazz musician, university instructor, taxi driver, radio news writer, waiter, auto factory laborer and paralegal.

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