Only a dime a dozen for these broken dreams
a free wooden nickel with each pack of lies
a jar of hoodwinks, flimflams and befuzzles
a bucket of lost hope and a box of how time flies
a Brooklyn bridge, a few penniless thoughts
next to some wasted time and that mirror and smoke
some dirt-cheap hooks, lines and sinkers
a bunch of fake smiles and a couple pigs in a poke
some bamboozles and a few hornswoggles
a pile of ashes from some bridges I’ve burned
a sows ear, some silver thread and a gold needle
a silk purse filled with the lessons I never could learn
~ Feeling Okay…
My blood pressure is up
cholesterol is too
I have a heart-beat that is quite erratic
My blood sugar reads high
LDL is too low
the scale says that my weight is still pathetic
My hearing is near gone
one eye is almost blind
my doctor informed me with a slight chortle
Well now Jerry, my friend
at least you are not dead
but remember that you are not immortal
So here’s another pill
if you take it you’ll feel
just a little bit more like you did before
But the best thing for you
would be to take a long walk
and leave all the ice cream and pie at the store
~ Where the Cowboys Live…
There’s only so many ways I can write a song
about a cowboy riding his horse cross the range
Are there any new words I can use to describe
the rugged mountains that tower over the plains
What else can I say about them icy cold rivers
that rapidly flows down from a snow covered peak
Or the beauty of a simple life just living
in a line shack right next to a slow running creek
To tell you the feeling after a hard days ride
the warmth of the camp roll that I made for a bed
The sight of a full moon rising over the hill
the cattle standing still and my belly well fed
Is there another way to express how I feel
bout all them stars a shinin’ up there in the sky
Or about how nature lulls me to sleep each night
with the howl of a coyote or a night hawk’s cry
How many more stanzas can it possibly take
until you understand what a glorious sight
Seeing all them old cowboys that you call your friend
telling jokes and stories round the campfire at night
Heck, I suppose it don’t matter what rhymes I use
or trying to find some new words for me to give
You ain’t never gonna know lest you come out here
to the tall grass and live the way the cowboys live
~ Just Another Cowboy…
Riding out among the tall grass and sage
I came on a pile of old cowboy’s bones
No grave was dug and there was no marker
to say who it was that died here alone
I wonder if when his final light blinked
was there someone who held his memory
or was he just a lonley old cowboy
who roamed o’er this vast Montana prairie
Did he have a woman he left behind
to shed a tear or cry out in sorrow
were there any children who might want to
carry his name into their tomorrow
Or maybe he had folks back in the east
Who hadn’t heard from him in many years
where his mamma mourned her son every night
praying for him through eyes filled up with tears
Whoever he was will never be known
so I unmounted and dug him a grave
I wrapped his bones up in my camp blanket
on a bended knee a prayer I gave
Lord would you please watch over this man’s soul
as he rides your herd through eternity
Where the grass is green and the water’s sweet
Cause he’s just another cowboy like me
~ Slim…
Slim was an old Texas cowboy
had traveled cross this country some
Said he roamed the range all his life
and to ‘Montana he had come
Cause down south it’s hard to figure
what caused so much stink and shoutin
Wanted to see for he got old
this big sky, prairies and mountains
He’d heard about Little Bighorn
where Custer fought them Indians
The Great Continental Divide
and secret Gates of the Mountains
There’s this here place called Glacier Park
with its Going to the Sun Road
By being that close to heaven
could it really be all that cold
Then there’s them three rivers where the
Missouri waters gits her start
And that Russell fella who paints
all them pictures of western art
Sure would like to see Yellowstone
they say that’s quite a sight to see
Where water goes a shootin out
the ground hotter ‘n ole Hades
Not to mention all them critters
like wolves, moose, elk and grizzly bear
Goats that can climb straight up a cliff
perch like a dab blamed eagle there
You folks got this here Chinese wall
a sight that I just gotta see
Thousand foot tall in the center
of a million acres of trees
Got some mountain canyons that are
bigger ‘n most cities around
Herds of wild horses runnin cross
the land make a thunderous sound
At night they say a trillion stars
show thousands of Buffalo graze
They move along so graceful like
through warm and sunny summer days
I said let me warn ya ole Slim
we got things here you won’t believe
But once you lay your eyes on them
you sure ain’t gonna want to leave
Pert near twenty winters have gone
since Slim came to Rockin Bar J
I placed bitterroot on his grave
when we laid him to rest today
Slim might have been born in Texas
and that is quite all right by me
He died a Montana cowboy
in this place where he chose to be
This story, Slim and the Rockin’ Bar J are fragments of this ‘wannabee cowboys’ imagination.
Jerry Brotherton 