The Outlaws Poem by Bonnie Elizabeth Parker

BONNIE'S OWN POEM

01:
Billy rode on a pinto horse
''Billy The Kid'' I mean
And he met Clyde Barrow riding
In a ''little grey machine''

02:
Billy drew his bridle rein
And Barrow stopped his car
And the dead man talked to the living man
Under the ''Morning Star''

03:
Billy said to the Barrow boy
Is this the way you ride
In a car that does it's ''ninety per''
Machine guns at each side?

04:
I only had my pinto horse
And my six-gun tried and true
I could shoot but they got me
And some day they will get you!

05:
For the men who live like you and me
Are playing a losing game
And the way we shoot, or the way we ride
Is all about the same

06:
And the like of us may never hope
For death to set us free
For the living are always after you
And the dead are after me

07:
Then out of the East arose the sound
Of hoof-beats with the dawn
And Billy pulled his rein and said
I must be moving on

08:
And out of the West came the glare of a light
And the drone of a ''motor's song''
And Barrow set his foot on the gas
And shouted back ''So long''

09:
So into the East Clyde Barrow rode
And Billy into the West
The living man who can know no peace
And the dead who can know no rest

END


Historical note:

In this poem Bonnie 'puts words' into 'Billy The Kid's' mouth, and through Billy she tells Clyde how she feels about Clyde's 'life's journey'.

A book about Billy The Kid was among the items found in the death car, when Bonnie and Clyde were killed.

The last time Bonnie spoke to another person (other than Clyde) , was to a young boy, two days before she was killed. Her words to that boy (Percy Methvin) were: ''Don't never get into the mess that I've got in, for the love of a man
I'm gonna have to die with him, always go straight,
don't never go crooked''