Has Anyone Seen Buck

I’ve long been fascinated by how the “facts” of a story tend to change from teller to teller! Has Anyone Seen Buck? Somewheres close to midnight…‘bout a week ago today…we’s passin’ ‘round a bottle (as we’s ventin’ off the chuck), When Coosie starts ta speculatin’…tryin’ to figure why, fer quite a while ain’t none of us seen hide-nor-hair o’ Buck! Badger claimed some feller said he’d seen him down in Brownsville, draggin’ ‘round a big ol’ cast…and lookin’ kind o’ rough. Dan was thinkin’ Rowdy’d said he’d seen him up in Billings…tradin’ pelts fer flour an’ lard, an’ jerkey…beans…an’ snuff. Baxter’d heard he’d hired out fer twistin’ on the 6’s. Kilroy said, “I heard he’s tendin’ bar in Coeur d’Alene.” Then Paco tried convincin’ us that we was all mistaken. That everything we’d heard…and that our friends had claimed they’d seen… Simply wasn’t possible, ‘cause…clear back in November…he’d been told by Colonel Slaughter’s foreman, Booger Red… Buck done caught some slicker palmin’ cards in San Francisco. That feller pulled a pistol from his vest an’....shot ‘im dead! Funny how the gossip ‘bout a feller gits around, an’ funny how it varies like it does from tale to tale. But, friend…as far as I’m concerned…until I know for sure…I figure me an’ Buck ‘ll meet up somewhere down the trail. PS: I've now got 4 new Audio-CDs - @ 4 1/2 hours each = (62 diversely varied pieces). They’re listed on EBAY - under - “Mark Stellinga Poetry” - or available by simply contacting me at -- mark@writerofbooks.com -- should those of you who enjoy listening to poems as well as reading them - and particularly those of you that travel - care to be so entertained. (We use safe and simple - PayPal) Cheers, Mark