Cowboy Poetry and Western Verse
Cowboy Heart
By George Rhoades
The old man gripped a cane
With gnarled and wrinkled hands,
Sat down beside me there
In the rodeo arena stands.
He said, “I was marked
With the cowboy brand
From an early age in Texas
By cactus, mesquite, blowin’ sand.
“Call it what you want,
Cowboy spirit or cowboy heart,
Cowboy pride kept me goin’
When things were fallin’ apart.
“But it got me into trouble,
I remember to this day,
‘Cause I wasn’t afraid of nothin’
And I never backed away.
“I’d try anything at all,
Tho’ it wasn’t wisest to do,
I’d tackle any job,
Always tried my damndest, too.
“I got that cowboy spirit,
That get ‘er done and more
From my grandpa and my daddy,
Both cowboys to the core.
“Roundin’ ‘em up and loadin’ ‘em,
I worked cattle all around,
Brandin’, cuttin’, dehornin’,
Hell-for-leather and hell bound.
“Dropped outta school at fifteen,
Thought I was growed enough;
When that Hitler war started,
I wanted in no matter how rough.
I was totin’ a rifle at seventeen,
The Bulge, the Rhine and Normandy,
And through those bad times
The cowboy brand carried me.
“After the war, rode the rodeo,
Broncs, bulls and ropin’, too;
Made some money, spent it all,
Paid the devil his due.
“Broke some bones and some laws,
Lost some wives and girlfriends,
Tried city jobs a time or two,
Tried to straighten up, make amends.
“Worked oil rigs way out west,
From El Paso to Midland to Abilene,
Made the honky-tonks and bars
And all the places in between.
“I watch these young riders now,
And I see myself back then,
Quick and limber and full of fire,
And I’d like to do it all again.
“I’m damn near ninety now,
I’ve learned a thing or two,
When things are going the worst,
The cowboy heart will get you through.”
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