The fate of Billy the Kid
By Patrick T. Reardon
Limerick sour hen, consort of
thick-palm, bellied Patrick, cock
of blind alley, Catherine grudged
open to twitch the moment in soiled
New York night. In two hundred seventy
five solars, her derogate body birthed
child of spleen from vipered womb,
verted goddess of machinations,
raw hollowness, treachery and
all ruinous disorders.
Side-stabbed,
serpent’s tooth,
shade of hanging tree.
Blame the sun, the moon, and the stars.
The firmament twinkled and
Mickey-Moused the Kid’s slack face
on a thousand thousand t-shirts.
Patrick T. Reardon
11.25.19
NOTE: Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s uncompleted Arcades Project, this poem quotes words and phrases from Shakespeare’s King Lear, rearranged into a new setting and with new companion words.
This poem was originally published among four poems by Patrick T. Reardon in the Adelaide Literary Journal in September, 2019.
Written by : Patrick T. Reardon
For more than three decades Patrick T. Reardon was an urban affairs writer, a feature writer, a columnist, and an editor for the Chicago Tribune. In 2000 he was one of a team of 50 staff members who won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Now a freelance writer and poet, he has contributed chapters to several books and is the author of Faith Stripped to Its Essence. His website is https://patricktreardon.com/.
