Long Wranglers Poems

GARLAND
By Kate H. Stark


It happened while practicing my violin. 

I practiced at home on a seat near the door.
I suddenly felt a huge urge to explore.  

The bluebirds were soaring up high in the...

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The trail was long and very dusty
great clouds churned up by hooves
of the vast herd being wrangled on
300 more miles of eating their dust

Bandana's tightly wrapped round faces
cries of "get up there" ringing out
bawling calves...

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The Firemen were ready for their competition, as excitement did abound.
Then in flew Super Dragon, while landing, he mowed his buddies down.
Yep, he had landed tail over appetite, but of course, that they did expect.
As...

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West Texas is a vast, wide-open area, dusty, windy, and dry. Many a time I hid the mostly unbranded calves I took from the herd on the XIT ranch behind the tumbleweeds that had built...

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“Let ‘em loose,” came his bellowing yell,
“I got 3,000 head I gotta to sell,
Goin' 1,000 miles in weather that's hell,
You're all gonna sweat and all gonna smell”-

The boss’s eyes on ten cowboys did lay,
With disdain...

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*The feline Texan way*

A clean coat of paint - on my nails
Red shade of lips - on my smile
Solid oak charms - on my wrist
Country music - around my core
Flattering eyes - a rustic shell.
Join...

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hey, what are you doin there missy
yeah you, standin in that space
leanin there in your stetson
lookin about this place

do ya think that you fit in here
why did you even stop in
to hang out with real...

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I don't know about you
but the seeming me abused and cursed
had all my birth fingers burnt off
at the first knuckle before the first lullaby
from too many here hold my beer
blithely eager watch this rolls of...

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When cowboys sprawl 'round the camp fire after the days work is done,
They strum guitars and tootle harmonicas and sing to have fun.
Real cowboys don't sing Honky-Tonk or She Done Me Wrong stuff.
They leave that...

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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 never hear from him again

Started out in the gold mines...

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The unsung heroes of the open plains
The outlaw bandits like Jesse James 

Cut throat thieves and black jack hustlers 
Green horn Cowboys and long horn rustlers 

They all stood the Cowboys test
A stetsons man a...

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I took a stroll through Boot Hill Cemetery the other day,
To take a look at where outlaws and other rabble lay.
Some graves were marked by stones, others by weathered board;
Many covered with cairns of rock,...

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I never get tired of being on fire for Christ.
Let hell turn to ice. 
The second coming is close. 
Your an eternity away from being toast. 
The teer from your eye is a light year...

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(In the summer of 1960, filming began on
"The Misfits".  Shot on location in the Nevada
desert, the picture was enveloped in a weird
atmosphere of doom from start to finish.  For 
the three stars -...

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We were pleased to claim this land
for Jesus.
We raised cities that were bear free.
Our faith in 'better and bigger' soared;
meth fueled crime leapt still greater.

Cracks appeared where a garish paint
had weathered the sky.
Plaster flamingos crumbled,
angelic...

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Walking down a dusty trail
Leading his horse along
You can hear the jingle of his spurs
As he bellows out a song

His boots are muddy and broken down
His wranglers, worn and dusty
He smiles and pushes his stetson...

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The dungarees I used to wear
Were Levis, Wranglers, Lees;
There were no upscale denims then,
With fancy pedigrees.

They hugged my hips and fit real snug,
With bottoms flared like bells.
I wore them ‘til the hems were frayed 
And...

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You might know me by my wear;
Sorely I stand before me, yet the me not really me, yet surely be
if you were to open door therein is hangers full of clothes that’s just there...
Shirts, cargo...

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Take me home winged beast,
powered by engine and motor oil.
to relish in the home made feast,
towards east to love and spoil.
crossing the seven seas of myth.
let in only with a paper slip,
so trivial but of...

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no cowboys in stock on this side,
but acrid fishermen provide 
marine lifelines, hamlets sustain.
Spineless seas they ride, shark's terrain.

pre-dawn cowboys of Waves arise 
early wranglers trawl for the prize 
through murky waters or in plain....

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His surreal cerulian cherubic blue eyes
are to die for cause they tell no lies
The way they look in the moonlight
never departs his heart's soul plight

His blues sing without singing a word
his heart is heard in...

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