Blackthorne--Review 1

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Blackthorne

Cinemagenics 1-10

Review: Part I

“Many of you friends & loyal readers of this epic poetic series

have come along mid-plot, & struggle to keep the characters

straight, & wonder about the story. So for the next few OLN,

I will do a brief review of the events posted over several years.”

--Glenn.

One:  Monarch--Introduction of a vast buffalo herd that is surging

across some railroad tracks, stretched out to both horizons, as a

speeding train has difficulty stopping, killing dozens of animals

before it halts, with a huge albino bull buffalo overlooking the

scene.

Two: The Long Death--Opening on buffalo hunters slaughtering part

of a herd. Cut to thirty foot high piles of buffalo bones & skulls bleaching

in the cruel sun. Cut to an encampment where the hunters have skinned

the pelts & staked them out to dry. Cut to a railroad siding where thousands

of hides & pelts are sold, stored in box cars, & shipped east. Cut to the

great albino bull galloping through the middle of the hunters, stomping

pelts & breaking stakes. Cut to the bull on a hilltop, looking down on the

town of Blackthorne, shimmering blue below. 

Three: Pas Peregrinus--Detailed description of the town of Blackthorne,

with three loafers lounging midday on the porch of the China Doll

Saloon. One of them stares off to the east, out into the heat haze, &

announces, “Rider coming.”

Four: Arrival--The idlers watch as a lone rider comes into town. The stranger

is heavily armed, & is dressed in dirty buckskins with both Mexican &

Indian attire; a buffalo hunter, who is riding a tall roan stallion, & is

accompanied by a large black wolf-like dog. The newcomer reins up in front

of Wallace’s General Store, reading a sign, OUT TO LUNCH.

Five: Inquisition--The stranger dismounts, notices the three men at the Saloon,

then walks his stallion & dog over to them, wrap-reining at the hitch in front of

them. He has a .55-120 Sharps buffalo rifle in a scabbard, & is wearing a Colt

.41 Thunderer on his right hip, & a sawed off shotgun on his left. He inquires,

“Is the old Buck ranch still deserted?”

Six: Conversation--The porch riders tell him that as far as they know the old

Buck place has been deserted for 15 years, ever since Bill Buck died. They

tell him that the “big man” in town is Cash Bronson, who owns the saloon,

the hotel, & a stage & freight line, & runs the largest cattle & horse ranch

in the territory, the Triple B. He would love to buy the Buck place, but it

seems the new owner has been an absentee for years. The stranger

thanks them, mounts up & lopes off west out of town.

Seven: Homecoming--The stranger rode several miles out of town, & then

up into the foothills, up to the abandoned Buck ranch--riding through a

broken hinge gate, under a bullet-riddled sign on the overhead pillar that

read ANTLERED BUCK. 

Eight: Remembrance--The stranger stops in front of a ramshackle two-

story ranch house, recalling his childhood, romping with his collie, loving

his mother, Sarah, & father, William. Cut to when Roddy was 8 years old,

during the traumatic birth of his younger brother, when Bear Woman, their

hired domestic, acted as midwife.

Nine: Eulogy--A funeral at the Buck family cemetery. Sarah had died in

childbirth, & Bear Woman held the newborn, Jack, feeding him goat’s

milk from a bottle. Cut to a year later at the breakfast table, with Bear

Woman cooking bacon, eggs, & pancakes. Little Jack called her,

“Ma-Ma”, & big Bill Buck, lost in a whiskey haze, stormed out of the

kitchen, followed by a distraught 9 year old Roddy.

Ten: Departure--Young Rod Buck, at 17 years old, packed up & was

leaving behind the pain & sadness, the drunkenness of his father, the

disintegration of the ranch--anxious to light out. He would ride west

to become a buffalo hunter. He told Bear Woman that he had to leave,

“before I go crazy, or hurt the old man.”  She wanted him to stay. Jack,

now 9 years old promises to come & join Rod in a couple years. She

said to Rod, as he left, “May you find good medicine out in the bloody

sea of grass.”

.....to be continued.

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub OLN