History Cowboy Poems

He wears thick gloves when he strings the barbed wire,
fashioning a thorny fence from prickly metal spines,
reminding me that cattle like to know the boundaries,
the...

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...The days went by, and not that much changed,
Black Ken’s gang ruled with orders deranged,
bled people’s coin, every day the same,
and I could just stand...

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A sheriff I was in a small town,
seen fifty years, and earned no renown,
when Black Ken and his gang did come down
to Mick Callahan’s big...

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In the saloon a lone, haggard cowboy
Had more than double his fill, one last sip
An imagined past of unlawful joy

Recounting the times he shot from...

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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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...Then he could see it, the boils,
on their neck and wrists, bright and red,
he felt an itch on his own back,
and felt a cold moment...

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...But Mains just shrugged, then said, “Let’s go.”
offered the wrists to his bandittos.
Two of them led the man away,
Diaz fumed more watching him go.

Denied the...

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Now I know you’ve heard the story
of how I all was way back when,
when cowboys rode with Indians
near our small town of Buzzard’s Bend.

Not long...

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Smokey hailed from someplace back in Missouri
was a slave until the ripe old age of ten
Left his master's home headed to Montana
and swore they would...

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They said the cowboy way of living
has withered away and is long gone
Least that's what I seen in the movies
and heard in all them old...

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By the time the sun's faded o’er the prairie
well I’m just about as tired as tired can be
My horse has been fed and all the...

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A Cowboy And His Thoughts On Dodge City

In the razor whip and faster gun
  the flaming sun, the fertile fields
    ...

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VII.
It was one year, minus a day,
when Reg ventured back to her home,
he’d gotten work running cattle,
all over Nevada did roam.

But the whole time he...

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VI.
Reg looked from the dinner table,
heard the door take a hard pounding.
Jolene frowned, said, “He sounds sober…
He’s much worse when he doesn’t drink.”

But Reg knew...

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V.
Reg did nothing but embrace her,
it seemed like the right thing to do,
she said, “Let’s just go back to bed,
it’s much nicer lying with you.”

The...

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