THE HIDDEN TRACK

The following passages are dedicated to Leopold, to the vernacular, to certain evil women (you know who you are), to certain wonderful people(they know who they are), to soft afternoons and quiet Sunday evenings, to Fall and seeing your breath for the first time since Spring, and to Isabelle Ya Feng ... a soul slipped by like two ships passing in the still, moonlit sea.
-- Abraham Ahmed, the Surfing Beatnik



The Death of Katie McGuire...

Towards the back room, through the heat and the haze
sat two outlaws known as Wilson and Craig.

Both men, just from boys, with everything to prove,
fed fevers with whiskey on hot afternoons.

A rioting pair known throughout the whole town
for hideous deeds never spoken aloud.

Tom Wilson and partner Ezekiel Craig
Thieved horses and cattle like county-wide plague.

The thrill of the rustling wore off in the night
as thoughts of young ladies danced in their mind's sights.

It was Katie McGuire, all of twenty one years,
who was beaten and kidnapped by these notorious cavaliers.

Only months away from marring neighbor, Ethan McQueen
Katie was stolen to the east bend in the stream

At the unoccupied mill near the Waiacha hot springs
Wilson and Craig conducted unspeakable things.

With the acts concluded and Katie half dead
Wilson and Craig bludgeoned her head.

On a concrete floor she lay in the night
As Wilson and Craig made off in their flight.

Twas weeks and months till young Katie was found
by a state land investor inspecting the grounds.

Ethan McQueen, basked in sorrow and need
committed to skin the doers of such a deed.


At length Craig and Wilson proudly returned
To the low valley town of South Laklinburge

They spoke of their travels and women they roped
They let their guard down as whiskey now spoke.

A card dealer sent word to Ethan McQueen
of the rot-gut tails so brash and obscene.

Towards the back room, through the heat and the haze
sat two outlaws known as Wilson and Craig.

Their bodies were butchered in chairs where they sat
A hole in each head and intestines in laps.

Both men, just from boys, with everything to prove,
fed fevers with whiskey on hot afternoons.

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