<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Hobo Billy And A Kiss</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Went to Salt Lake City in 1962. Four college students</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">In a black Ford Bronco. Started with a case of Green Death.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Gone before the Nevada State line. We fired the</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Shotgun out the window and chased rabbits in the</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Desert night. Spun donuts and yelled our stupid youthful delight.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Kind of adventure that young men had.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">First stop Mustang Ranch. A lonely ranch with trailers and</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Bucking whores. Scared me more then Hannibal, my old</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Retired race horse back home. He had no pretext when he turned to</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The barn. He wanted to dump me, knock me off with a tree,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Buck me. Stomp me. Get me off his back. It was all I could</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Do to hold on. The talk after that grew boastful and snarky.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Two months later, first pay check bounced, cleaning grease</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">From restaurant kitchens, eating six hamburgers for a dollar,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Watching Boss drink and chase women. Caught a ride to Vegas, </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">hitched 95 to Needles, California. Hotter than Hades, thumb out, </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Man dressed in all black, white shirt, skinny tie, stingy bream hat,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Black Impala, red and white leather seats flipped a U</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">And picked me up. Air conditioned with a beer.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Man, you could die out there he said. Musta’</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Been a gangster or an actor.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Got to Needles near sundown with two dollars and</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Fifty- two cents. Found the rail yard the hobo camp with</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The box car tramps. They were cooking Mulligan over</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The campfire in a gumbo can. As good as mom’s home</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Cooking. I was on the hog. Had some black strap in</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The same tin can. Flopped on some cardboard covered</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">With the moon and a California blanket. They knew</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I was no cat but a tourist.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Hobo Billy was going North to pick fruit, or so he said.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">He knew the way, the Harness Bulls, the Dicks, how to catch</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">A sidecar pull man on the run. He was on the broke like</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Me, a boxcar tramp. Our arrival was perfect and</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Billy got us on a boxcar with more California bedding</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">And we climbed the Tehachapi to Bakersfield. The train curled </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">uphill behind us, mountains stark and dark. Gonna’ be colder then a</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">witch’s tit he said.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Got to Bakersfield in the morning light. Billy asked if</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I had any money. I said fifty -two cents. He said that’s enough</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">For some Apple Jack wine. There’s a liquor store right over</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">There. He had to catch on the run but he had the Apple Jack.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">We sat in the Hobo Special, legs dangling, passing the Apple</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Jack back and forth. Morning light, through the Valley</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">To Stockton.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I asked Hobo Billy why he lived this life, moving from crop to crop,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Or town to town. You ever piss out a box car door and</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">It blows in your face, you’ll know the answer to that</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Question, he said. I hopped off in Stockton with that</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Poetry to contemplate, never to see Hobo Billy again.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I hoofed to the Loser Cruiser Station and caught</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The Hound to Concord. It was a two- dollar ticket.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">On the Hound I met a pretty lady in the back</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Of the bus. I told her this story. She kissed me. I kissed her.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">She drove me home. She and Hobo Billy just dream</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Particles now. I walked into the house. My Dad</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Was reading the newspaper. He asked “Where have</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">You been?” Oh. Nowhere I replied. I headed for</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">The reefer and then a hot shower. Closed the door</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">Counting sheep like before.</span><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Ernie Carpenter</span></div></div></body></html>