I knew not of love

    
   Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty; also known as William H.Bonney and Kid Antrim) was an American gunfighter, shot to death at age 21.      


I knew not of love, or its flickering spark,
But I screamed when the iron first tore through my chest!
The cold was breathing again in the dark,
From the desert’s night flame that found no rest.

I knew not of love, nor its healing or grace,
Just the bitter reproach of the name that I bore.
The void of my dreams in that desolate space
Was swept to the silence of some distant shore.

I remember the source where the rivers would rise,
And the currents of blood used to run through my veins.
But a shadow descended to weigh down my eyes,
And the armor was sealed with the rust of my pains.

I never had sought any enchanting land—
And my life like a hawk in its fury had flown
Over canyons of sin and the shifting of sand,
Where death was a shepherd who ruled all alone.

And I'm tired of all the things I regret!
In a fraction of a second, the bullet struck true—
I remembered your face, though we have never met,
And the sky o'er the world frozen grew.

I never did learn what they mean by a heart—
Just a cold, hollow gaze in a limitless race.
Farewell to the sunset now bleeding apart,
No man can hold the wind to heal such a space.



*Alice L. July*
25.05.2026 г.