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                                Texas Jukebox

 

it was a scary thing alright
black as night
when Oklahoma decided
to wing it to Texas

I’m gonna leave old Texas now
’cause there ain’t no use

I’ll sell my horse & I’ll sell my saddle
you can go to hell with your longhorn cattle

dust cloud choking & dirt poor
spindly bug colored cotton stalks
last year’s crop still in the field

he left his home in Texas
well he was looking for a job

we’ll wash Texas dirt
in blue Pacific water
eat oranges by the bushel
playing Milton’s Brownies on the radio

they call me Scum the saddle bum
a saddle tramp from ranch to camp
just ridin’ near & far

a thousand miles of sand & sun
on the old Butterfield line
frying pans wired on the side
a bedroom on the running board

Windy Bill was a Texas man
& he could rope you bet

windows kid-finger smeared
stick legged staring with
grim money-worried mouths
grandma says give ’em
Prickity Ash Bitters in the spring
to thin out winter blood

down in the wash forty feet below
mashed to a pulp
was our little Texas stray

Tom Wills on the radio
grandpa John on the porch
Little East Texas Red on a Strawberry Roan
the Beaumont Rag put us to bed

roll out while she’s hot
praise God & get it
while there’s still some left

I see him in pearl-button shirts
dangly-down cowboy scarves
watermelon felt with a rattlesnake band
moustaches drooping like long horns
he could buy you with a Republic of Texas
two dollar bill & a gold-button peso

I rode upon a saddle fine
a saddle made of silver

now I’m out of a job
& I ain’t got a dime

riding the wash with Bill Boyd’s Cowboy Ramblers
we took the Goodnight-Loving Trail
up the Pecos & into flannel

come all your reckless Texas boys
& listen to my song

going back to Texas
down by the sleepy Rio Grand

& I know I’ll never more be leaving
Texas home my rambling days are done

           

Next poem from Indians: Kachinas

 

 

                                                                         
 03.05.05