The Devil Came To Aspen Poem by David Welch

In eighteen hundred ninety-three,
back in those silver-mining days,
a figure walked into Aspen town,
and it was the devil they say,
come looking for new souls to take.

He didn't look like you would think,
the first time he appeared.
He was dressed like any old cow-poke,
and spend hours in saloons drinking beer,
a rough figure, but not much to fear.

They say he spoke with some miners,
and stirred up their jealousy.
Got them so mad they burned the house
of their foreman Bud McKenzie.
That night all heard poor Bud scream.

Most folk would've written if off
as drunken fools losing their heads.
But in the firelight dozens saw
the devil's face shift, and grow red,
his sick laugh filling folk with dread.

He vanished that night, and for two days
things seemed to return to form.
But then he appeared as a three-year old
in young Maggie Delgado's arms,
and she did not seem too alarmed.

She didn't know her baby lay dead
her body left in the woods for the crows.
The devil took her form and that morning
went everywhere Maggie would go,
‘till ‘she' jumped down and ran in the road.

Maggie cried out and ran for ‘her, '
when a horse came riding, lickety-split
It slammed into Maggie, trampled her down,
heavy hooves ending her in a lick.
The rider looked down, and was sick.

And then in the street many did see,
Maggie's daughter grown rather tall.
Transforming into the unknown cowboy
who had lead the foreman to his fall.
He laughed again, having a ball.

Folks started to panic, leaving town,
a few stayed and found the sherriff.
Abner Gidden was his full name
a middle-aged man of quick wits,
would not sit still and put up with this.

He went to a priest of Catholic faith,
who instructed him to God to pray.
He spent a whole day seeking advise,
while many in town fled away,
to be free of the devil's sick games.

When Abner emerged, he headed up
the slopes of Ajax with his gun.
Spent the day searching abandoned shafts
looking for perdition's dark son.
Then at nightfall, he found the right one.

The devil didn't hide, he strutted right out,
a smile painted on his red face.
"Why my dear sheriff, how in the world
Did you ever find my new place? "
Abner stared on, seething with hate.

"An old friend told me to find you here, "
He explained, glancing up to the sky.
"You know why I'm here, you son-of-a-bitch.
You made those poor people die.
And now has come your time! "

The devil he laughed, and shook his head.
"You think that Colt will take me down?
I'm a damned archangel, and well beyond
The people of this backwater town.
Now behave, and toss that on the ground."

Abner lifted his arm, taking careful aim
at the devil's broad, muscled, red chest.
The devil just sighed, and started forwards
"You should not put me to the test, "
The devil did smugly confess.

Abner squeezed back on the trigger,
And a shot rang out in the night.
The devil lurched backwards, screaming loud,
his hellish face a mask of fright.
He looked down, shocked at the sight.

A hole there awaited, the flesh dissolving
around where the bullet had hit.
He gasped and looked up at Abner,
saying, "No! No, I don't believe it! "
Abner just smiled, then on him spit.

"Pride, its goes before a fall,
that you of all folks should know!
I talked to your Pa, and He answered true,
and showed me the best way to go
about laying your carcass low."

"See into each bullet I carved a cross,
and in holy water I dipped the tips
Then old Priest Frazier blessed each one
Blessed my gun, and then gave lip
to the Big Guy to watch over my trip."

The devil shrank back, eyes afire,
struggling to say on his feet.
Abner he fired five more times,
what the devil sowed he then reaped,
and fell to the ground in defeat.

His body dissolved into the snow,
His soul went screaming back to Hell.
Abner breathed a sigh, holstered the gun,
and stood their quiet for a spell.
They he walked out, heading down the hill.

Now some folks say the crash of ninety-three
was what drove folks from Aspen's mines,
And ushered in the beginning
of the town's long and sleepy times.
But the real story you will find

Is that the dark one roamed and destroyed
until an old cowboy took him apart,
And for decades to come he raged in Hell
about Abner Gidden, that damned upstart
who dared shoot the devil in the heart!