The Afterlife of Billy the Kid
Paperback
Publisher Price: $16.00
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN13: 9798385290833
Publisher: Resource Publications (CA)
Published: Sep 21 2026
Pages: 156
Weight: 0.48
Height: 0.33 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Publisher: Resource Publications (CA)
Published: Sep 21 2026
Pages: 156
Weight: 0.48
Height: 0.33 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A fable woven into the fabric of history, this poem tells the story of a Billy the Kid, who does not die in 1881 but lives to be an old man, which he calls his afterlife. Through dramatic monologues in heptameter lines with two primary narrators, Billy and a character named Alias, the poem narrates Billy's early days and the Lincoln County War. Then the poem narrates his afterlife that includes encounters with a Yaqui leader in Mexico where he also has a surreal vision of Our Lady of Guadalupe; Oscar Wilde and former slave and cowboy Nat Love in Colorado; Nate Champion in the Johnson County war of Wyoming; Theodore Roosevelt in Dakota Territory; Sitting Bull at Standing Rock; the love of his life in San Francisco; revolutionaries in the Philippines; and Emiliano Zapata in the Mexican Revolution. It's a story of loss and self-forgiveness as Billy struggles against both injustice and the destructive force of his own need for vengeance. Prosaic lines tell the story, more poetic parts break out of narrative into something visionary and philosophical, even spiritual. While addressing a world riddled with tragedy, this work remains a song of redemption through the persistence of hope.
Also in
General Poetry
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Alighieri, Dante
Pitavy, Francois
Paperback
$33.00
Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year
Guite, Malcolm
Paperback
$19.94
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Lao Tzu
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Paperback
$17.06
They Bloom Because of You: Poems on the Infinite Love, Growth, and Magic of Motherhood
Urlichs, Jessica
Paperback
$18.05
Ariel: The Restored Edition: A Facsimile of Plath's Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback
$17.99
This Is the Main Event: Discovering the Life You Long for in the Life You Have
Smith, Joshua Luke
Hardcover
$24.70
