Billy The Kid In A Sky Blue Kerchief

[on Mr. Perry Cordill's illuminating, "speaking" portrait
 of Billy the Kid]

Billy the Kid in a sky-blue kerchief, barely standing still against the skies under which he wandered; he wandered, wished the skies would open up; wished for

the angels on a black day, suddenly sunlit and is it sunlit in the

portrait, would you say? the eyes slit with a pale blue marksmanship; the diffident something besides a smile; the head aslant, unsure, under the porkpie hat of

the stranded Magi, what, you never heard of?

in an off gold shirt and open at the neck to the gallows?

for this year's pastel Christmas card, hand-painted.

oh paint, he seems to suggest if he had the nerve,

to the portrait-maker-

a stage coach one-way ticket

to a different homeland, maybe I'm the

orphan of too many destinations left to count

cut out of the picture book, a someone to save when

trying to reconstruct

lost prayers for all the outriders in the margins of

the unwept for (perhaps, not now):

American West

mary angela douglas 13 july 2014

Note on the poem: This painting "Billy the Kid" by Mr. Perry Cordill, a Sonoma County California artist can be found at
 www.perrycordill.com.  Just click on Wild West and it's the last painting.  And use zoom to magnify it if you wish.

There is such real intensity and feeling in the face.  It's simply incredible.  While you're there, you might want to look at the other portraits.  I especially love Annie Oakley against a prairie rose pink sky the color of a dress she might have wanted to wear but didn't get around to.  The freshness and the glory of a dream Wordworth said of his lost feeling for natural scenes.  The same phrase could be used to express the wonder of these American West portraits.