Dogtown Bull Blues

by Jim Dunn

Babson Boulders sit still
The wind’s a ghost
Through the trees
A familiar friend

Off in the distance
Sudden bursts
Of gunfire
Echo in Dogtown

The invisible bull
Lowers his horns
Off the rocky road beaten path
Where basements sank
With the weight of spirits
Pirates, slaves, hookers
And strays
Rearrange the rolling rocks
For a new pasture message

Betting on the bull in the heather
With future considerations—
The divine Kao
Slams a man’s pride
against the boulder

Merry Jim raised the bull
To fight the bull
To die by the bull
On the secret spot
A wise man showed us

First gored there
Jim died here

A matador who
Could not tame
the boulders
or the calf he
raised as his killer

Wrestling fury
To the ground
Thrown upon

The stone
Where he died
Trying to prove
He was the man
Who beat the
Dogtown bull blues

In a sea of change
I bleed tears in the water
As the sharks circle