RODEO RIDERS

Cowboys are a passive lot
unique but hardly quaint.
Rather shy with strangers,
a cheery group they ain’t.

Most often they are loners
with nothing much to say.
A “yup” or two will get them through
an ordinary day.

But something snaps inside their brain --
they seem to go awry;
when allowed to ride a Brahman bull
that could easily make them die.

No one ever forces them
to mount a fearsome steed.
I’m sure that God don’t ask them to,
so it must be just their breed.

There is no earthly reason
except to make you laugh
to leap clear off a running horse
and wrestle with a calf.

And what does not make sense at all
is riding with no saddle.
They might as well bend down and say
please whack me with a paddle.

The broncs and bulls are awesome beasts
just grazin’ in a pasture,
but cowboys like to make them mad,
then ride them to disaster.

Perhaps there is a reason
why cowboys rodeo.
But I’ve yet to hear a good one
so I’ll probably never know.

7-5-92

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