Midnight Shoot Out
Platinum sheet lightning lit up the lone prairie.
A midnight shoot-out film played in the sky above me.
I heard a lone wolf howling a chilling haunting song
and then across the sky I saw ten riders riding strong.
The thundering of the horses hooves echoed thru the night
as I bore silent witness to this blurred and ghostly sight.
Five Hatfields on the left and five McCoy boys on the right
were mounted on their wild -eyed stallions, guns drawn for a fight.
The tall scar-faced outlaw riders had hatred in their eyes.
The midnight sky was lit up like a blazing hot sunrise.
Their horses were pale phantoms snorting foggy breath
carrying ghosts riders in a sky that screamed of death.
I heard Anse Hatfield’s voice blurt out "McCoy! This is your last."
"You won't ride this range again." and then I heard a blast.
Ole Ran was hit in the chest, but dead men’s ghosts don't fall.
Already dead, he couldn’t die and so he still rode tall.
Then the midnight sky became a deadly, quiet clear.
There was no noise at all in the hazy atmosphere.
I relit my campfire to burn off the ghostly chill
and thought about dead men and ghosts and reasons why men kill.