Scars from twenty-two knife wounds
are not included, nor is it possible to show
on the diagram the hole four inches square
and many inches deep that was blown
in Tom's back by a dynamite explosion.
           -- wound chart from Ralston Cereal Box

With X's to mark fractures and O's
for bullet holes, some alone and some
in clusters, this cowboy's silhouette
outdid the direst renderings of Saint Sebastian:
"A. Skull fractured in an accident; B. Nose
injured when artillery wagon blew up
in China," and on through Z,
P close call for his mythic manhood
-- stigmata for us Straight Shooters,
sworn to the official oath, the official
view that "Lawbreakers always lose,
Straight Shooters always win! It pays
to shoot straight!!!" Doubters could touch
the ring, decoder badge; believers follow
the trail of rectitude and pure
horse shit, that saintly mix, that stuff
of legend spread along the airwaves
amid news of Uncle Sam and Rinso White,
rumors of Katyn and Buchenwald.