Life Ranch Poems

I always hear the sound of guitars strumming
harmonica music and cowboys humming
when I feel a warm night breeze upon my face

Whenever I look at a...

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‘Twas way back in them days 
when the ranch owner’s ways
was just about the only law there was around

Rancher’s money was king
and gun violence reigned
till...

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She's up in the morning
two hours before dawn
has done most of her chores
before the lights come on

Already milked the cows
and gathered up the eggs
even put...

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I.
Sol stared down the empty trail before him,
looking to see what waited in the dim,
the Zander Ranch was the place from the note,
they’d written of...

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III.
It was near midnight when they came again,
four warriors armed all with flaming brands,
Myron bolted up from a fitful sleep,
and poured out bullets as the...

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I.
Myron Baker wasn’t much of a man
for gunplay, whiskey, or ladies of the night.
He'd made his move out the western way
for space to live his...

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SAGEBRUSH RANCH

holding his small hand,
jumping up and down,
in the silver box —
a playground with mirrors
and three buttons.
people that look like us
are all around.
when the box...

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Her walls are pastel and peaceful,
Quiet, sheltering one,
Beginning in the day’s garish fashion,
Ugly rose beige, forest green, curtains of red.
When the heart broke, the thing...

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...It was early fall when the trouble came
to the Sperry’s and the Circle-S Ranch,
a dozen bandits came riding in hard,
shooting their guns in an entrance...

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Rudolph Sperry was a ranch-owner’s son,
and rode hard for his Circle-S brand,
helping punchers herd cattle 'cross the plains,
in Nebraska’s western Sand Hill lands,
he wasn’t that...

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Don Heller owned an impressive spread,
Not that far from Lindholme town,
Below the tall peaks of Idaho,
Down the road from Ed McGowan.

Ed McGowan owned half the...

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Sixties Secret Agent

In black and orange inks
some wag had stenciled,
"no need for tests -
for use on dinks".

Gung-ho. Can-do.
Make war, not love.
You hit puberty, and find
you're...

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She arrived from the big city
wearing a red ten-gallon hat,
and a denim stone-washed outfit
which topped off her shiny new 
cowboy boots that were designed
by Tucson...

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DEVIL'S HIDDEN RANCH

Coyote howl, dogs growl
Gunshots, dead cow
Red barn left unlock
Horseshoe upon death's door
Tequila in a cup
Salt of cocaine, shadows of insanity
Guitar string, sad song
Bandit...

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If you'd have lived and worked on Juno Ranch, you’d have come away better for it. It 
may not have seemed like it at the...

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