An Old Cowboy
By: Wayne Brown
From my warm campfire up here on the ridge
I see the car lights shining in the night so bold
Life is crowding close to our kind’s ragged edges
We’re a slowly dying, shrinking breed I am told
Once this cowboy life was the wide, open range
We rode its far horizons with some of the best
Now this progress crowds our little place in time
Calling for cowboys to move over and join the rest
That call is an empty one to my ol’ stubborn breed
It’s not what we want; not at all one that we heed
We stand on what we have; All that we have done
Yet aware progress will not stop until it has finally won
Starry skies on the open prairie night live in my heart
But only in dreams now in which I play only a small part
Dusty trail rides while punching northbound cattle herds
Reality once, memories now, etched now only in words
Progress is comin’ on fast; we cowboys have had our day
Change is comin’ so fast; a stampede headed our way
Turnin’ ranchland into towns; making trails into interstates
Soon there’ll be little left if it keeps movin’ at this rate
But I’m not one to let the cowboy life just go on by
I’m not for changin’; hell, I’m too damned old to try
Progress may be comin’ but I’ll not build it a bridge
I’ll just ride my pony a little higher up here on the ridge
When the cowboy life is finally done, I’ll be done too
That will be the point at which my life will be through
But until then I’ll just stay right here where I’m at
Lookin’ at the world from underneath this ol’ cowboy hat
©Copyright WBrown2012. All Rights Reserved.
2 February 2012