Grandfather of Cowboy Poetry,
Axter had a proclivity to find unmarked graves, research the
occupants, and erect a fitting tombstone. His sayings, which number
now in the hundreds, are known affectionately as Klakitaths.
Axter published a book using one poem-ballad and several old photos,
naming the work
The Ballad of Alberta Al.
Most of Axter's
literary service to humanity was jotted down by Classanr Chanteur
in nearly-indecipherable French hand scrawl. As a result, every year
more of Axter's work emerges as the historians unravel M.r Chanteur's
scribblings.
EMPLOYMENT
Cowboy Poet
EDUCATION
Wild West
Axter never had a home, leastwise that
anybody knew about. Like a tumbleweed, Axter blew into town, rolled
around sharing his seeds of wisdom, then blew on out. By most
accounts, he outlived at least seven horses and every one of the
surviving members of the
Confederate and Union Armies
combined.
Axter could out-draw, out-shoot, and
out-run Classanr Chanteur.
But given the choice, Axter preferred to
out-poet his
younger friend.
AxterKlak.com
I was born on a day in the week of the month in the year I was born. My grandmother wrote the date into the family Bible, but she took that with her when she returned to The Old Country after she shot my father for messing with her only daughter. Ma died when I was barely able to walk. She was coughing a lot, then one day was not coughing at all. We did not have any neighbors, except Indians. They came and took everything except her and me and a baby that showed up one day before the coughing started and Grandma shot my father. I have no idea how the baby got there. The kid could barely crawl!
AxterKlak.com
Times were hard for the original locals and we was just two more hungry faces to feed. A fake medicine man came by to water his horse at our spring. By then, it had been nearly a week, I had eaten what I could, fed what was left to the screaming kid, but had yet to learn how to wipe, so we both were a mess down there. After the fake medicine man filled his water barrel, he set us down into the bubbling waters, washed us off. No problem for him. He was never coming back for another drink. I am pretty sure he sold us to a circus. We had Midget Mom and Midget Dad, until we grew too big to beat up.
AxterKlak.com
AxterKlak.com
I went to a horse doctor, asked if he could guess my age by examining my teeth, like he can with a horse. He looked. He said I was older than Thirty, because I was missing some teeth, but younger than Fifty because I had some left.
AxterKlak.com
I have written some short stories and poems, but nothing coming close to the volume that Classanr produces. Mostly, I visit graveyards and place tombstones on unmarked graves. I figure out a decent epitath, carve it into the stone. I mean, if a man has gone to the trouble to die, somebody needs to summarize his life. I do it for women, too, but there are few of them in Boot Hill.
AxterKlak.com
I had Marvin print me up a pile of these wanted posters. First, to prove I am worth much more alive, and second not to mess with me if somebody is willing to pay Twenty-Five Large to bring me in. No where do these posters say who, or where, or for what, but they seem to do the trick.
AxterKlak.com
The woman you see holding my picture claims to be my daughter, Kitty Klak, but I do not see how that is possible, because I have never been married!