Brothers
A.K.
Some consider the fates of heroes
As things of pomp and strut
Always flanked on front and side
By men of wealth and busty dames
My visions of heroes though,
Come in different suits.
My heroes are not the stuff of myth
They are the brothers James.
Frank and Jesse James
Their deeds in infamy
They rode the slums and cities both,
Never willing to be caught
Frank the elder
Jesse the junior
Frank the planner
Jesse the killer
They rode the land,
With guns in hand.
Through the west
Their names were known
From Quantrill
To "Bloody Bill"
They made their names.
Old and young,
The brothers James
On February 13,
In the year of 1866
They started a trend
The law just could not fix.
Frank the elder
Jesse the junior
Frank the planner
Jesse the killer
They cased the bank,
They staked it out.
They held it up
And rode on out
This deed of theirs
That won them fame
Also found a place for them,
Always in death's face
And yet they laughed
At that ugly face,
Until the day they split apart
By the dirty hands of fate.
Frank the elder
Jesse the junior
Frank the planner
Jesse the killer
Robert Ford the gunman
Took Jesse's life from him
What hundreds of lawmen couldn't do
It took him a shot or two.
Frank the elder
Frank the planner
After Jesse's death
Frank found he could do no more.
He went and settled down.
To cleans his hands of gore
Now to quote a famous song
By one Warren Zevon,
"Keep on riding, Frank and Jesse James, Keep on riding."