In
Boot Hill there are over 400 graves. It takes
the space of 7
acres. There is an
elaborate gate
but the path keeps to main
route for it tankles
like branches of a tree among the
gravestones.
300 of the
dead in
Boot Hill died
violently
200 by
guns, over 50 by
knives
some were pushed under
trains -- a popular
and overlooked form of
murder in the
west.
Some from brain
haemorrhages resulting from
bar fights
at least 10 killed in
barbed wire.
In Boot Hill there are only two graves that belong to
women
and they are the only known
suicides in that
graveyard.
--
From The Collected Works of Billy The Kid by Michael Ondaatje. The actual poem doesn't have a name (only a couple in the book do), so I put it where it looked like it would fit best.