Cowboy's Lament

An Old Rodeo Cowboy
By GC SMITH

My old pick up truck’s seen much better days
but, what the hey, the same can be said of me

We both got scars from hard roads traveled
scrapes, dings, bumps and ragged rust spots
hard worn signs we’ve both been time used

We’ve traveled this land on hump back old roads
we’ve been out on life’s great four lane highways

Our paint and skin has been flayed by desert sands
our hearts scorned, froze out by blue Norther ice
but we still slog on through life’s bitter winds

A worn saddle lies in my pickup’s bed
a box with old, yet clean wiped tools

Some other bits and parts of a travelin’ life
are stuffed into two threadbare old duffels
all in all not much for our decades of movin’

There’s an spavined old roan horse
back behind in a dinged up junk trailer

That poor boy should’a been pastured somewhere
instead I’ll keep haulin’ that critter back there,
like me, he’s a ghost of our old glory days

There' nothing to hold up my time faded Levis
there won't be no more champion belt buckles

Boots down at the heels, leather all cracked
tell an sad story no one wants to hear
‘bout them days that can’t come back again

Yet, I know we’ll keep on a roamin’,
still hopin’, searchin’ for lost times renewed

We’ll wander around, movin hither then yon
me, that horse, and my old ragged truck
because there plain ain’t nothin’ else to do

We’ll never stop rollin’, not while we live
‘cause that ain’t what we was born to do

We’ll search on and on for another good day
though we know in our hearts, down way deep
it’s a last hope and it ain’t comin’ true