After the Movies

Las Animas, Colorado 1950s

By Andrew Dickens

six years old walking out
of the movie theater
with the assault of day so bright
eye-squinting like the guy in the white hat
walking like the good guy in high noon

arms swinging like little parentheses
over the nonexistent sixguns
straight from imaginary props
walking down the ordinary sidewalk
suddenly a magical path
where anything could happen

but not scared
ready for anything
a b-movie could conjure up

for a badass six year old
with sixguns at the ready

hero for the five minutes
it took to walk home

About the Poet:
Andrew Dickens, in his own words

"An old man who majored in English at Kansas University, taught English in Japan, sold investment diamonds in Honolulu, spent six years homeless on the streets of Austin, Texas, San Francisco, and Honolulu with seven months in a radical Christian cult in Honolulu. Now in a relationship with a woman I wish I’d met 30 years ago. Ran the Honolulu Marathon in 1980. Been there, done that."