Some Poems
"Lamp" pencil on paper
Jo Lynne Kirkwood
It has Been Awhile (Since I've Ridden Wild Horses...)
When I think of the old man, I remember him there
on the steps of the bunkhouse, in an old rocking chair.
His fingers were knotted from fencin' and rope,
his back bent and aching, but he smiled when he spoke.
He'd say, "It has been awhile since I've ridden wild horses,
and it's been awhile since the wind called my name.
It has been awhile since I've walked in the canyon
But I know, surely one day, I'll go there again.
When he was a young man he fought a great war.
They took him from Utah to a place that was far
far away from his homeland, from his free open range.
But at night in the trenches he remembered, and sang...
"It has been awhile since I've ridden wild horses,
and it's been awhile since the wind called my name.
It has been awhile since I've walked in the canyon
But I know, surely one day, I'll go there again.
He returned from the fighting to this land that he loved,
To his free open spaces, his blue skies above,
and he never asked much but to rope and to ride.
All the nightmares of battle he kept locked inside.
When I knew him he tended cookstove, and swept up the floor
Doctored our head colds and backs that were sore.
He had no other family, no children, no wife,
And that rockin' chair rythym was the pulse of his life.
We'd been up brandin' dogies late one Autumn night,
came home after moonrise, to see that no light
was turned up in the bunkhouse. It was empty and chill.
And on the front porch the man in the rocker was still.
But it had been awhile since he'd ridden wild horses,
and it had been awhile since the wind called his name.
It had been awhile since he'd walked in the canyon
But he'd always known one day, he'd walk there again.
ŠJo Lynne Kirkwood - October, 2002
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