The Legend of Leadville by Marleen Bussma

A round of insults fills the air like water fills a creek.

Loud pistols poke through windows. No one turns the other cheek.

The dueling madams spray their bullets. Life is on the brink.

Guests hide behind Victorian sofas as they spill their drink.

Combative harlots argue over who’s more glamorous.

The battle lasts two hours with their fracas and their fuss.

The hoped-for lull appears when firing arms become too tired.

Come daybreak, they may start again unless their will’s expired.

Prized metals scratched from local mines line pockets of the rich.

Prospectors flock to this high country with a miner’s itch.

Bright gold is fickle as a harlot’s heart and fades away.

Black tailings from the gold mines offer up a rich display

that brings back prosperous good times that had left a worn-out trail.

Hotels, an opera house, new schools are built on a grand scale.

The mineral that has reclaimed life in this once dying town

is lead, thus Leadville, soon to be a burg of great renown.

The high times bring low morals as the lawless settle in

like squatters wearing out their welcome with their life of sin.

The city marshal’s chased out of town in his first week.

His new replacement, gunned down in a month, leaves their times bleak

Mart Duggan, who will tame the town, is sworn in by the mayor.

His rep says he’s a gunman. Local thugs don’t have a prayer.

He escorts crooked deputies and judges out of town.

The incidents of claim-jumpers and armed gangs have gone down.

Mart Duggan hitched his gun belt up and changed the life of crime.

The residents of Leadville, Colorado, can spend time

attending opera—ev’nings at the theater that won’t cease.

The thin air near the tree line finally has the sound of peace.