This next poem is about Bisbee.
Probably I know Peter Young is here.
I know there are a number of people here from Bisbee,
and so I thought you might enjoy a poem.
You might even have had some similar experiences
in your lives with what this poem is about.
"The law is after me, Monroe McPheters says.
I better pull on out of this Guadalupe Canyon way
before dark.
There's no lights on my horse trailer,
and the Douglas law is waiting.
I was riding a colt down the alley between F and G Avenue.
I stopped and went into the B & P bar.
Well, you know, the law considers
a horse a moving vehicle.
I didn't realize I'd tied that colt in a no parking zone.
They gave me a ticket.
They took away my driver's license.
But the next time I come to town, I was ready for 'em.
I rode a colt that was a little bit bronky
and tied him to that telephone pole
by the B & P bar, which Bill McDonald must
have gone in a time or two."
Right, Bill?
[LAUGHTER]
I know I did.
[LAUGHTER CONTINUES]
And I'm sure you knew the McPheters.
[CHUCKLES]
Anyway, "Monroe said he went inside
and he waited for the law to come.
Well, after a while they found that colt,
and they come into the bar to issue me a ticket.
I guess I resisted a little, says
Monroe, so they handcuffed me.
They threw me into the back of their paddy wagon.
They asked what I wanted done with that colt.
I told him they could do any damn thing they
wanted with that colt. Ride him, lead him, or tow him away.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, one of them policemen thought
he could ride that colt out of town.
He only lasted maybe a block or two.
He was laying on the ground and the colt was running loose.
The police radioed for other squad cars to come help.
They had their sirens a-going, a-trying to catch that horse,
running away down the street.
Well, the way to get close to a colt ain't by chasing him down
the road with a siren a'going.
[LAUGHTER]
After a while, they took them handcuffs off of me."
[LAUGHTER]
This is Monroe, of course.
I would never do such a thing.
[LAUGHTER]
"They let me out of the back of the paddy wagon.
They said, Monroe, you go catch that colt, and you get on him,
and you get him and yourself out of this town,
and don't never come back.
That's how come I come to settle in Bisbee."
[LAUGHTER]