Rural fringe
Dwells common cringe
Cardboard-cutout street
Set like flint
Hinterland where
Lawn and forest meet

Cliff frontier
Carved face looks on
Ranks of timber felling
Sinking ales
Saloon servants
Stirring tales a’ telling

Piano stool swing
whisky jar fling
Rest old timey den
Battle weary
Laden pilgrim
Poised sword of pen

For Liam Hugh

“We take up task eternal, and the burden and the lesson,
Pioneers! O pioneers!
All the past we leave behind…” -Walt Whitman

Honky Tonk Piano