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Poetry © Joel Tankersley
 
Big Spender

Leadville is cloud city,
it lays at 10 thousand five.
In August you'll find Boom Days
when every bar's a dive.

Tucked away on Harrison Avenue,
no rough crowd could blast.
Was at the Golden Burro
Syndicate "Brass Ass".

In those golden doors we poured,
thin the mountain air
Hippy miners all around
hairball grand affair.

Drills and dopes all was lit,
jukebox scratched away.
Rowdy and loose,
some nasty hooch,
we threw our miner pay.

I was broke by 10 PM,
my turn to buy agreed.
Payday rich here my friends
I'll spend the Eagle seed.

Belly up to the bar I cried,
the round is all on me.
Bartender just set them up
the price is chicken feed.

Booze fell like water
Hoora! went the house.
The barman was there before me
just a drunken rotten louse.

In my pocket I dug deep and
I come up with parrot seed.
On the bar I plopped my prize and said,
"there's your chicken feed".

In a cold sidewalk and dusty street,
Leadville city plain.
The wild west was over
and so was my bird seed game.

Copyright 2000 Joel Tankersley