Lonely Cowboy Poems

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...

Read More

Riding out among the tall grass and sage
I came on a pile of old cowboy's bones
No grave was dug and there was no marker
to say...

Read More

Sitting outside the firelight
I share this valley with the moon
The stars twinkle overhead
and the bullfrogs begin to croon
My fire sparks its own starlight
drifting up into...

Read More

I always wanted to be a real cowboy.
A Buck-a-rue with scars on my cheeks and worn boots,
I wanted my spurs to jingle and my saddle...

Read More

Sittin’ in th’ saddle. Gotta soon skedaddle.
School marm says she’ll tattle. Sheriff wants a battle.
Kissed her on the cheek jes’ to git a li’l peek...

Read More

Dear Father, mine. 

I ran away from bad. 
I took my children with me.
I found a place to run to. 
It was an empty castle...

Read More

Drifter

Coming in from nowhere, 
staying only a moment, 
and then moving on. 
Friend, or foe?
Hard to know. 
What to call you...
by name? 

Without family, 
left...

Read More

This young greenhorn was simply wasting his time trying to outsmart Shorty!

             ...

Read More

family's all gone
nothing to cling to
no one to sing to
nobody will cry
when I sing
sad cowboy songs
alone on the prairie
no one still needs me
it's a bad...

Read More

"I didn't want to break your heart.
I had no thought of that at all,
When I told you I'd be leaving
Right after roundup time this fall.
A...

Read More

Billy rode the cowboy beat
In fairs and rodeos
Bobbi barbecued the meat
They served at all the shows

She dreamed of matrimony
And a wedding dress with bows
In a...

Read More

Out west there are many new ways.                  ...

Read More

...He rode off into the wild,
seemed not to care for their child,
she would have to bear him alone,
for a doomed man could be no dad.
Three...

Read More

Wake

What is that noise?
I have heard it before?
In the ramblings...
of my loved ones words? 

I must get up and seek it out.
I rise like the...

Read More

The Pirate

This is an ongoing story, 
about the limits of the library. 
It can take you as far as you can go, 
but it is...

Read More