WYATT AND THE DOMINO

WYATT AND THE DOMINO
Ricardo Antonio Garcia 

We stand in the domino forest like trees with dots.
In fear of a storm we shake in our footings
as the earth quivers from an adjacent railroad track.
The Birdcage Theater doors are open
and every soiled dove now stands as a domino
properly attired in their nylon stockings
alluring the future prospects of the present time.
Woman without names
the dots on their braziers are displaced 
from their ivory shoulders
praying that God takes away their endless pain.

The stench of unwashed cowboys filtered the air.
In brutal contempt, a murderous knife
mutilated one of the maidens and killed her.
The value of a soiled dove 
matched the dark heart of a perfect stranger
and to Hell her beauty drifted below.
Imprisoning women in the folklore of dots
at the gambling table they were bought and traded
for what was a woman worth.
Wyatt Earp went on with a bar whore
later to abscond her 
from her trade and leave the town forever.

She escaped the history of the dots 
and tried to cover up 
that she ever was a working soiled dove.
So, in her place she stands in the domino forest
as a blank, a space between the connections. 
Will the beauty of a woman
erase all the ills and travesties of her perverted life?
Can she be vindicated for her Sin?
Can a man look over the mountainous hazards
and discipline his heart?
Wyatt loved her without recompensing doubt.
He held on to the domino.
To her once frozen heart of spades
he protected the vestibule of beauty before the Sin.