The Old Santa Fe Trail came down this way
and angled off up the hill
on Country Club Drive.
The beginning of the trip over Raton Pass
and the Rockies,
a last bit of the Great Plains
and its easy trails.
The street from here to Animas street
was lined with bars.
And men came here to fight, drink, gamble
and dance with the painted ladies.
This was a Man's part of town
and women were painted ladies
if they lived down here.
It was a resting place,
a "catching-a-breath" kind of a place.
It was the West End of Trinidad
so familiar to depression children.
Men who played cards down here
had to be real sure not to win too big,
or it could turn into a great loss -
a truth easily read in the
suspicious eyes across the table.
The trail turned at the Grand Hotel.
It had the only indoor swimming pool in town.
And parents would allow their teen age boys
to go swimming
if they'd use the back door.
The pool was hot, windowless and poorly lighted
and in the water vapor's
blinding softness
a person could vanish underwater.
The boys knew what else
went on in the old Grand Hotel.
And what they couldn't imagine,
Shorty told them in steamy detail.
Then the war came and the POW camp
and the Old West End had to clean up -
soldiers had to be kept safe to fight a war.
The old Grand had a glorious history
and became so shabby.
Today Country Club Drive is for local traffic
and where the Old Grand Hotel stood
there is a vacant lot.
The Interstate is the new Santa Fe Trail.
The speeding cars don't see the Old West End.
It is gone
and Raton Pass has become a piece of cake.
But drive slowly that way
and listen to the ghosts
of pioneers and lonely men
who knew the Old West End.