Willie Day by George Bascom

 $Unique_ID{AST00210}

$Title{Willie Day}

$Author{Bascom, George S., M.D.}

$Subject{poetry}

$Journal{}

$Volume{}

$Date{1982}

$Log{}

                                 LATE ASTERS

                                 Willie Day

A thorough scoundrel, Willie Day.

He lied and drank his life away,

Left broken hearts to mend alone,

Split homes as convicts shatter stone,

Drained bottles dry, fought barrooms bare,

Blasphemed his Maker without care.

The ugly tumult of his life

Ceased only when with wood and knife

He'd turn his restless stormy blood

To carving figures out of wood.

In chips and curls of walnut he

Would find a curious chastity.

His sinful hands and lustful eye

Made beauty unselfconsciously

Like flowers that rise from troubled sod

In praise of a neglected God.