To lose one’s mother
and wife inside
one twelve hour slice
of life must instill
a fear of touching the baby
Manhood
tested, he went west,
Badlands: ranching,
riding, and capturing
his life on horseback.
Among the pelts
and racks at Sagamore
Hill, one could look
directly at him, glance
the death mask,
fleetingly intimately
knowing the view from below.