In Lament Of The Cowboy

A scant twenty years,

grieved a century or more

 

Poetically perfect,

in spirit and lore

 

A man and his horse,

alone on the range

 

The cattle his instruments,

and music to play

 

Civil War veterans and blacks

from the South

 

Through dust and dark clouds,

snowy blizzards that mount

 

Together they battled,

in concert they fought

 

Each unto himself,

life’s harmony caught

 

The hardship and death,

to him worth the price

 

Pushing always ahead,

a stranger to fright

 

The only thing telling,

to be left at the end

 

Was the legend he gave us

  —and the message it sends

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2017)

Leave a comment