Dark Cowboy Poems

Cowpoke
by Michael R. Burch, circa age 16

Sleep, old man...
your day has long since passed.
The endless plains,
cool midnight rains
and changeless ragged cows
alone remain
of what once was.

You...

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Unlikely Mike
by Michael R. Burch

I married someone else’s fantasy;
she admired me despite my mutilations.

I loved her for her heart’s sake, and for mine.
I hid my...

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When your heartbeats drum their message of love.
My heart soars like the birds flying above.
As flashing thunder streaks across dark skies,
I will come swiftly, believe...

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...He fell to the snow, choking his last breath,
Dalton watched despite his own fading strength,
Barnes dismounted and walked over to him,
said, “I see that you...

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He saw a girl wearing only one shoe,
and drew the other one from his pocket,
tied it on her foot, and said to the girl,
“You have...

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He followed this path for half a mile,
found himself high up on a cold platform.
The trail split, one went across the mesa,
the other went right,...

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The man shook and said, “They wanted some fun,
but the boy was small, he started to bleed.
Patrick threw him out back, said, ‘This one’s shot,
but...

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Dalton lived in the north Texas plain,
working a ranch he owned for five years,
a small spread, but it brought some money in,
some solace after all...

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...They even claimed that Diaz died,
cut down by Smith’s swift, steady hand,
but Ramsey was nowhere near there,
did not go down amongst the damned.

Instead he was...

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Many messages from Heaven
are hard for me to understand
How one moment I held you close
the next you slipped out of my hands

Forgive me if I...

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That storm had my heart beating
as I rode herd through the night
All that rumbling of thunder
and savage flashes of light

The darkness felt uneasy
as drenching rain...

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I.
He was riding south from Boise,
having split from the other men,
they’d got together for this job,
would not see each other again.

It was much safer doing...

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V.
He could hold his breath over a minute,
bullets hit water, didn’t penetrate it,
he’d used this trick before against his foes,
water stopped slugs fast, not many...

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III.
He kept off the roads to avoid their eyes,
through scrub and dry grass, onwards he did ride,
skirting north of the ranch, behind a ridgeline,
until he...

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Road are silent 

I have many questions day to day
 past till past stick of clock 
Who you think I am having
 eyes but it's...

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