Christopher Hitchens. From Granta.
Black Bart, stagecoach robber-poet who plied his trade in the 1870s and 1880s in Oregon and Northern California. After his fourth robbery, he left this poem:
I’ve labored long and hard for bread,
For honor and for riches
But on my corns too long you’ve tread,
You fine-haired sons-of-bitches.
Black Bart, the P o 8
Now we know: P o 8 = poet.
