The Gather

The Gather                           by Mike Williams   July 18, 2013

My dogs are all tired and my cow horse is slow

I got less than hour of daylight to go

I wouldn't worry

Except I can see

The hours it’ll take me to finish is three

When I started the day I had a good plan

The cowboys I had here to help me were hands

We started our circles

In pretty good shape

But it all went to hell when I saw 308

She saw me as soon as I crested the hill

There’s a good chance I’d a been chasing her still

But she came to a cliff

Had to make a hard right

She dropped into a draw and vanished from sight

I sighed with relief after that little foray

At least when she ran, she ran the right way

But in all the commotion

Six or eight head

Ran up the mountain behind me instead

I climbed to the top, got them turned around

I took a short break, and then started back down

Then way off on a ridge

On my left I could see

A cow chewing cud, lying under a tree

 It took me forever, riming around

To get close enough to get her started down

I was beginning to think

I’d be way behind

Starting these cows had took way too much time

Then off in the distance, I could barely see Ron

Climbing the side of the hill he was on.

That old brindle cow

Was giving him hell

If he gets her caught she’ll go to the sale

Lynda was having a hell of a time

With that mutton faced cow, number 369

Sara was down there busting her ass

Getting cows out of a brushy crevasse

If you think this sounds tough, I can honestly say

This was the story, for most of the day

Close to the corrals

Things got kind of tense

When old 64 ran straight through the fence

                 

Now here I am scrambling, with the sun going down

Whishing I’d taken that job back in town

Just a reminder

When things go all wrong

The life of a cowboy’s not all sunsets and songs