Where have all the bison gone
shot by Sharps shooters nearly every one
where have all the shooters gone
done away by Indians more than some
the red man revered the buffalo
of Manitou's abundance living proof
to the white who sent them
to the not-so-happy-hunting grounds
a gold mine on the hoof
the paleface ways in olden days long gone
were somewhat less than perfect
and should be frowned upon
to soldiers bison were target practice
indigenous people to quell
while hunters killed for the hides
by 1884 the Black Hills buffalo death knell
lies were spoken treaties broken
but revenge was none too soon at hand
Sioux Cheyenne Arapaho attacked
and briefly turned the tide
on what was their rightful land
beside the Little Bighorn
one frightful day at Custer's last stand
Categories:
bighorn, animal, death, environment,
Form: Rhyme
Wolf.
Puma.
Long-necked (or was it
long-bodied?)
Dragon.
Forest...Fire.
A Bunny, cute -
and on its back.
A Bounding Fox
with Seaspray Fluff
of Following Tail.
A long-nosed Fellow
bearing bulbous eyes;
grown wider with surprise
at the Cloudball gone:
teetering off from said
Nose.
A Wingsuit Aerialist
falling bellylong into
greens below. Laughing.
An Otter, now -
popped up from (,some-
how,) a Prairie Dog’s hole.
Over the Water Gap.
A profile, of
a Presence’s Silouhette
but with lip backlit...
and Chin. About to
Smile in the foreground
of...a
...Waterfall of Light.
Curiously, a Bighorn Seahorse Sheep.
I drive.
Press on.
I drive.
Look up.
I drive.
Clouds drift. I drive.
Categories:
bighorn, dream,
Form: Free verse
*Image of Battle of the Little Bighorn by History.com
To See Or Not To See
General Custer had a sentry,
A man of trust whose name was Henry,
He lost his spyglasses,
Used his blurred eyeglasses,
Yelled, "Those Indians sorta friendly."
2022 June 01
Categories:
bighorn, fantasy, funny,
Form: Limerick
A horse and mule move through the heat and sun
Along the dry desert sands below the deep blue sky
Waiting and watching nearby on some cacti trees
Sit red-tailed hawks smaller birds and a elf owl
And close by in the heat wait mule deer and bighorn sheep
Willows and cottonwoods begin to appear in the sandy nurseries
For here in the desert — horses and mules enter to dig wells
Dug by earth’s special creatures down to 6 feet deep
Groundwater for wildlife the bounty of nature’s engineers
Ancient times taught the horses, the mules to create the wells
Nature's gift, dear God mankind, we need to allow these creatures to be free
As described in a paper published April 29 in the journal Science, the animals use their hooves to dig more than six feet deep to reach groundwater for themselves, in turn creating oases that serve as a boon to wildlife
Categories:
bighorn, blessing, horse,
Form: Narrative
A man who thought he would fly,
got too close to the sun,
set the ancient example
that’s told to everyone.
A ship that they claimed never
would sink beneath the waves,
until a looming iceberg
sent folks to frozen graves.
A man who thought his troopers
could whip all Indians,
died at the Little Bighorn,
one man could not kill ten.
A candidate the news thought
impossible to beat,
oh, the moans we hear the night
she met a sound defeat.
A Soviet hockey team
that hadn’t lost before,
feared not, ’till our college kids
went ahead in the score.
A president who proclaimed
that now the Earth would heal,
instead turned to race-baiting,
a messiah not real.
A general who ordered
the charge at Gettysburg,
hundreds dead striking up hill...
should have heard Longstreet’s words.
A writer who thinks that his
poem might just be great,
but the autorank declares
that he just doesn’t rate.
Northing ventured, nothing gained;
it’s a good sentiment…
but how do we duck hubris,
yet keep our confidence?
Where’s the line?
Categories:
bighorn, confidence, introspection, loss, people,
Form: Rhyme
The Indians are Najavo
The army says "GO"
"Go to the reservation,
they are for you preservation"
Wovoka started the Ghost Dance
To pull Indians out of their trance
"We will fight for reform,
and we will not conform"
Custer discovered gold,
in the land so cold
Forces clashed at the Little Bighorn
A battle full of scorn
Categories:
bighorn, history,
Form: Couplet
Aspen, ponderosa pine, blue spruce
pink glacier-cut rock, scree, ravens
gray jay, peregrine falcon, hawk.
We climb to 11,000 feet in three days,
camp at Lawn Lake for three days. Alpine
tundra. Elk, bighorn sheep, marmot.
Tileston Meadows, ticks in grass,
rock face of Mummy Mountain.
Binoculars show pink cracks in gray rock.
Stoke gas stoves, play cards.
Boil water, set up tarps, lay out
sleeping bags, hang bear bag.
Watch crescent moon slice into
Fairchild Mountain. Moonlight
makes a mosque of the rocks.
Yellow aspen splash in dark green
spruce and pine. Gullies where streams
slash during spring snowmelt.
One rock, feather or flower worth
more than money. Need no wallet,
keys. Just clothes for fur.
All day climb toward saddle to see
what's on other side. One hawk floating
among bare peaks and over valleys.
Wind at 13,000 feet
turns to sleet. Turn back from peak,
take boulders two at a time down.
Winter moves into mountains.
Then we fly from Denver to New York
where it's still summer.
Categories:
bighorn, blue, clothes, flower, mountains,
Form: Verse
General Custer couldn't muster
Enough men to form a cluster,
Indians shooting straight and true,
I think it might've been the Sioux, ---- pronounced Soo
Had Custer in a fluster.
Categories:
bighorn, children, funny,
Form: Limerick
After Custer’s death in the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Native American legends declare his ears were removed
He never listened in life, they said, so when he was reborn
He would have no use for ears, for surely this much he had proved
*Written August 25, 2014 for Dr. Ram's Chastushka Contest
Categories:
bighorn, history, military, native american,
Form: Chastushka
Read a Book about a General named Custer
Pompous and Ambitious
He was filled with Bluster
Thought of Fighting Indians from Night until Muster
Little Did he know in a Dream his Men were seen by Sitting Bull
The Great Indian Cheif of The Teton Sioux
Attacked by Crazy Horse and Slaughtered at the Little BigHorn
General Custer's Massacre
Doomed the Indians
as They were met with American's Eternal Scorn
Categories:
bighorn, history,
Form: I do not know?
WIPEOUT
You cannot imagine us today as we were -
Almost simply a vestigial memory; but once
We were numberless and roamed the landscape freely,
Harmless and beautiful creatures, each graceful,
But most impressive in herds of ten thousand,
Grazing the short grass plains, following the seasons.
In winter moving south, returning in spring:
Shoals of us swimming the mighty rivers,
Herds of us trotting to the high pastures in late summer,
Flights of us in the early morning mists of the
Towering fortress mountains which sheltered our beauty
From all enemies. For millennia we lived in peace;
But the hunters came and took one of us as a trial; then another.
Then they took us in our thousands, for our skins, for our horns,
Until only a few remained, and were herded into one tight valley
With no escape. One by one the weapons of the hunters
Cut us down till only Bighorn, the last of our race, was left standing.
The chief hunter took careful aim and unleashed his weapon :
Bighorn fell dead and with him died the race of the unicorn.
Categories:
bighorn, animals
Form: Free verse
The Endangered Species Act
referred to as The ESA
is currently having problems
that may not go away.
Several species of wildlife
many a beautiful beast
Could very well become extinct
they're endangered to say the least!
Culprits, don't really seem to care
but they're at fault it's true
Oil Companies, Loggers, Special Interest Groups
just to name a few!
Global warming destroys their habitat,
their ability to hunt and such
Urban and Agricultural development
also don't help that much.
The aforementioned culprits and others
have undermined the ESA.
Some endangered species were left off the list,
"conveniently" needless to say!
The Grizzly Bear and Bighorn Sheep,
the Jaguar and Whooping Crane,
the Black Footed Ferret and Canada Lynx
are some that I can name.
All these animals are quite unique,
there's really quite an array.
So we all gotta do whatever we can
to support the ESA.
Categories:
bighorn, animals
Form: Rhyme
amidst grassy slope
bighorn retires to home range
begins chewing cud
Categories:
bighorn, animals, imagination, nature, seasons,
Form: Haiku