Lee Van Cleef
when you refused to “fix” your nose | they cast you as a villain | I respect that | you looked like my father | who was not a villain | more Mortimer, less Angel Eyes | wore about as much denim as you wore black | two fashion faux pas forgiven because you both cultivated mustaches worthy of spots in the Louvre | my father, too | refused to fix his arm | tried at acting | I’ve seen him lauded in yellow newspapers | played Curly in Of Mice and Men | a villain | just like you | so, was it torture torturing Eli Wallach? | even now | I have to look away when your thumbs press hard | on his black bug eyes | I guess I’m not much of a cowboy | I guess maybe it skips a generation sometimes | well, if I had a son | I’d ask him not to fix his nose | his arm | to wear as much black | or denim | as he wants | as long as he has a fine mustache | and if he turned out to be a villain | one I could not save | I hope he’d also end up | six feet under a stone that reads | “the best of the bad.”
Left Lane is a writer and broadcaster from Nashville, Tennessee. She comes from a long line of cowboys and has a collection of hunting knives. She is sad she’ll never grow a mustache as glorious as her father’s, or her grandfather’s, but at least their Stetsons fit her fine.