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Open Poetry #42
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Gunslinger
Senior Member
since 1999-10-09
Posts 901
TX, USA

0 posted 2008-03-27 09:36 PM


Tomorrow I'll Be Home

I rode out to the mesa, just to take a look around,
And there a few miles South of here, I saw the lights of town...
Why, I remember, pilgrim, I guess 'twas sixty-eight-
Weren't no one for a hundred miles, but me, an' Pete, an' Kate.

'Paches caught old Pete alone, down near the Creosote well-
By looks of what was left of him, his death was purely Hell.
An' Kate, she bore me three strong boys, 'fore she give up the ghost-
Of all the things the years have took, I miss my family most.

Comanches scalped my Billy, he had just turned seventeen-
An' Bob? He met a faster gun, one night in Abilene.
They wrote and told of Johnny's death, and, oh, the grief I felt...
He died there on that San Juan Hill, with Teddy Roosevelt.

The years have left me old and gray, a little stooped and bowed-
I stood my ground when I was young, I'll not go crawlin' now...
They say they're gonna take my land, I have no title right-
I bled for every acre, and I'm game for one more fight!

Some slick big-city lawyers say they're bound to bring me down.
I'll take the vultures with me, 'fore they put me in the ground-
One time they called us pioneers, when we were in our primes-
But now we're "cattle baron's" and we've far outlived our times.

They'll be here with the daylight, with a briefcase, badge, and gun...
I thought I'd make my peace tonight, I'm way too old to run-
So, Lord, I'm sayin' thank you for the years that I have known-
And won't you tell my loved ones that tomorrow I'll be home.



© Copyright 2008 John R. Yaws - All Rights Reserved
Marchmadness
Member Rara Avis
since 2007-09-16
Posts 9271
So. El Monte, California
1 posted 2008-03-27 09:41 PM


Wow, great story and my moneys on the cowboy.
                              Ida

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