Dirty Face, Cripple & Wild for Bob Creeley *

by Peter F. Murphy

The first used to chew
& never wipe his chin.

The second shot
his leg about off
going over a fence.

The third drank a lot
and raised hell.

Dirty Face married
and raised a big family,
but kept not
wiping his chin.

Cripple had a peg leg
carved to his specs
in the shape of a penis.

He joked
his middle leg
was twice as big.

Wild stopped drinking
and died of a stroke.

They’re buried together now
in the blackberry patch miles
back in the woods.

* A found poem, from a letter by Creeley to Olson in Vol III of the Coll. Correspondence.