Ranching

 

 

We saddled our horses and tracked the footsteps,

dainty footsteps of the mare that broke the fence.

All day, with the sun on our shoulders

we rode closer, closer to the distant hills.

 

We found Red Sally, my husband's prize mare

grazing in a green valley.

"Let's camp." Bob said, "It's almost dark.

 

But there was no darkness in that night

Enclosing night that covered and protected us.

I welcomed shadows, felt cool breezes touch my skin.

Safely held in moonlit arms,

In quiet, spoon-shaped love we slept.

 

 

Song Dogs

 

Old man coyote has many whims,

he means no harm.

Its strange to be alive.

 

Old man coyote sits up there at night

thinking how he created it all.

Blood in the sky, the sun is gone.

 

Old man coyote, grinning and beckoning.

as the song dogs run,

their trembling music clear and ringing under the stars.

The world will change and change again,

under the song dog's feet.

 

Lakota

 

Golden men on horseback swept northward,

searching,

their gift made the People masters of the plains.

The dreams of young men left the earth

to soar above the clouds.

On horseback

they were companion to the eagle.

 

My Cowboy

 

I'll buy you a saddle with four silver bangles

To ride into old Spanish Town.

I'll love you forever and I'll never leave you.

I'll never leave you alone.

 

Benton's Bad Man

 

Jake blew into Benton from down South.

Some said he'd been run out

Down Texas way

for bushwhacking a rancher.

 

He should have been satisfied.

When things got too slow for his nasty disposition

He'd guzzle half bottle of rotgut.

One-hundred-proof courage.

 

He'd brag he could outdraw any man alive.

When that brag boomed out folks didn't say a word.

They could fight, most of them had, sometime,

But nary one had ever picked a fight.

 

He stayed in town.

Jake Tyler was his name.

Bullied men to death if he got a chance.

Usually picked a drifter, somebody passin' through.

 

Jack claimed to have a way with a six-gun.

One morning a tall, thin boy sloped into the Red Wheel.

Jake braced him, thinking he had an easy mark.

"Hey you," Jake bellowed.

 

"Who give you leave to drink in this place?"

Soft and mild the drifter answered,

not even turning around.

"This here's a public place."

 

Jake's ears turned red as fire.

he jumped up and yelled, "Only if I say so!"

The boy turned around slow, easy.

his right hand out in the air.

 

Jake jerked at his forty-four

before he could clear leather,

He was falling back on the table

Blood was streaming from a hole where his left eye used to be.

 

That boy backed away careful, his colt ready.

Watching for Jake's friends or the sheriff to try him.

Me and Paul Smith, Benton's lawman

watched him get back on his pony and ride out.

 

Paul yelled at his deputy, Lin Willis,

"Git Doc Willard over here."

Doc Willard's the town undertaker.

Me and Paul ordered another beer.