He
was every burnt out cowboy that I'd seen a million times
With dead
man penny eyes, like tarnished brass,
That reflected
accusations of his critics and his crimes
And drowned
them in the bottom of a glass.
"He's a victim,"
said the barkeep. "Of a tragic circumstance.
Down deep
inside him, bad luck broke an egg.
Now his long
time companeros and his sagebrush confidants
All treat
him like a man who's got the plague."
He was damn
sure death warmed over, human dust upon the shelf,
Though Grasmere
ain't the center of the earth
He appeared
like he'd be lonesome at a party for himself,
So low was
his opinion of his worth.
"Pour me two,
and make'm doubles." Then I slid on down the bar
And rested
at the corner of his cage.
I had judged
him nearly sixty when I saw him from afar
But eye to
eye, I'd overshot his age.
'Cause it wasn't
time that changed him, I could see that now up close,
Pure hell
had cut those tracks across his face.
His shaking
hand picked up the drink, then he gestured grandiose,
"This buys
you chapter one of my disgrace.
It was twenty
years, September, that I first laid eyes on her,
Not far from
where this story's bein' told.
She was pretty,
in an awkward way, though most would not concur,
A buckskin
filly, comin' two years old.
We were runnin'
wild horses on the Blackstone range that day.
We found'em
on the flats right after dawn.
There was
me and Tom and Ziggy, plus some guys from Diamond A.
They caught
our scent and then the race was on!
We hit'em like
a hurricane and we pressed'em to the east
A'crowdin'em
against the canyon rim
'Til the fear
of God was boilin' in the belly of the beast
And chance
of their escape was lookin' dim.
We all held
the bunch together and we matched'em stride for stride.
I took the
flank so none of them would stray.
Then I saw
that buckskin filly take a trail down the side,
I rode on
by and let her get away.
'No big deal,'
I told my cronies, as we later reminisced
And celebrated
with a glass of beer,
She would'a
made poor chicken feed, so I'm sorta glad I missed.
I'll get her
when we crack'em out next year.
Shor'enuf,
next fall we found'em up on California Crick.
The buckskin
mare was still amongst the pack.
I had made
a little wager and I aimed to make it stick,
Whoever roped
her pocketed the jack.
We lined'em
out and built our loops. Then ignoring protocol,
That mare
changed course and never missed a beat!
She took dang
near the entire bunch when she climbed the canyon wall
And left us
empty handed at her feet.
In the several
years that followed she eluded each attempt
To capture
her, in fact, she seemed amused,
And her reputation
deepened, as no doubt, did her contempt
For us, the
bumbling cowboys she abused.
The ledgend
of the buckskin mare, which to me, was overblown,
Was bunkhouse,
barroom gossip everywhere.
She achieved
a kinda stature, way beyond mere flesh and bone,
And stories
of her deeds would raise your hair.
Some attributed
her prowess to a freak in Nature's Law.
Still others
said she was the devil's spawn.
So the incident
that happened at the top of Sheepshead Draw
Served notice
hell's account was overdrawn.
'Cause upon
that fateful gather there was one foolhardy dope,
A greenhorn
kid who didn't have a care
But susceptible
to eggin' and right handy with a rope
So, 'course,
we pumped him up about the mare.
He was lathered
up and tickin' like an ol' two dollar watch
When we spotted
the object of the game.
Though we
wanted other horses, each one ached to carve his notch
On the buckskin
mare, Bruneau Canyon's fame.
They were down
amongst the willers by a muddy water hole.
The kid went
first. He had her in his sights
And halfway
up the other side where the slick rock takes it's toll
He caught
that buckskin ledgend dead to rights!
He was screamin'
bloody murder as she clawed her way uphill!
He pitched
the slack and pulled his horse up hard!
She was jerked
around and faced the kid, and friend, if looks could kill
I'd have folded
before she played her card.
But the kid
began descending with his back turned toward the mare
He planned
to choke her down, I won't deny,
But she jumped
from high above him, like a bird takes to the air,
She looked
for all the world like she could fly.
Time was frozen
for an instant as she leaped out into space,
A piece from
some unholy carousel
And I stared,
slack jawed and helpless, in the morbid scene's embrace,
Oddly peaceful,
until the hammer fell.
She came down
like fallin' timber! Like a screamin' morter shell
And scattered
terra firma in her wake!
She lit runnin'
off his wrong side like a thoroughbred gazelle!
That nylon
rope was hissin' like a snake!
It flipped
behind the kid's own horse. Laid the trip as sweet as pie.
She thundered
by him takin' up the slack!
The rope drew
tight around his hocks, then she shifted into high
And jerked
that horse right over on his back!
'Course the
kid fell backwards with him. In my heart I knew his fate.
His soul was
headed for the great beyond.
She was draggin'
horse and rider like a bundle of deadweight
When Clay
rode in and cut the fatal bond.
She escaped.
That goes unspoken, toward the seeding to the west.
To our dismay
the kid had breathed his last.
She had spread
his brains all over, but ol' Maxie said it best,
'That's what
ya' get fer tyin' hard and fast.'
The years creaked
by like achin' joints. Driftin' cowboys came and went.
The buckskin
mare, she held her own and stayed.
She became
a constant rumor and engendered discontent
Among the
bucks whose reps had not been made.
But to me she
was an omen. Like a black cat on the prowl.
I had no admiration
for her kind.
She began
to stalk my nightmares, an obsession loud and foul
Only drinkin'
would get her off my mind.
There were
still a few ol' timers like Jess and Dale, Chuck and Al,
Who spoke
of her as one without a fault.
They bragged
her up, which didn't do a thing for my morale
'Cause I'd
begun to dread each new assault.
But I went,
like I did always, when they organized last year.
We met at
Simplot's Sheep Crick Winter Camp
Then headed
east toward J P Point, It was sunny, warm and clear
But I was
cold. My bones were feelin' damp,
It was gettin'
close to lunchtime when we finally cut their track
And found'em
at the Bruneau Canyon's verge.
We rode in
like mad Apaches! I was leadin' the attack!
The first
to see us comin' was the scourge,
The scourge
of all my sleepless nights. the bogeyman in my dreams.
I told myself
this run would be her last.
She ducked
across my horse's nose, to draw me out, it seems.
I followed
suit and then the die was cast.
She went straight
for Bruneau Canyon, made a B-line for the edge.
My head was
ringin' with her sirens song
Then she hesitated
briefly, sorta hung there on the ledge
Like she was
darin' me to come along.
Then she wheeled,
without a 'by yer leave' and dissapeared from view.
I reached
the precipice and never slowed!
I could hear
the boy's shoutin' but by then I think they knew
I was rabid
and ready to explode!
We landed like
an avalanche, my horse, a livin' landslide!
I'll never
know just how he kept his feet.
My boot hooked
on a buckbrush limb and whipped me like a riptide,
And in the
crash, I damn near lost my seat!
But I kept
the spurs dug in him as I held the mare in sight.
Varmints skittered,
as down the side we tore!
There were
boulders big as boxcars, rocks who'd never lost a fight,
That stepped
aside to watch this private war.
Then the cunning
crowbait got me! She came up to this ravine
And jumped
it! Looked to me like just for show.
But I reined
up hard and halted. There was twenty feet between
My horse's
hooves and sure death down below.
But no horse,
no fleabag mustang, was a match for my resolve.
I drove the
steel in my pony's hide
'Til he leaped
above the chasm! I could feel his fear dissolve
As we sailed,
soaring, flaunting suicide!
An eternity
of seconds that concluded in a wreck
The likes
of which you've never seen before.
Nearly cleared
the far embankment, got his front feet on the deck
And pawed
like someone swimmin' for the shore!
Then he shook
one final shudder and went limp between my knees.
I scrambled
off him, prayin' not to fall.
He'd impaled
himself upon a rock and died without a wheeze,
His guts a'stringin'
down the crevice wall.
Then his carcass
started saggin', slippin' off the bloody skewer.
I lunged to
save my rifle from the slide!
My revenge
was all that mattered, a disease that had no cure
Save the stretchin'
of one ol' buckskin's hide.
I stood up
and tried to spot her but my head was feelin' light,
I knew she
might be hidin' anyplace.
Then I heard
some pebbles clatter up above and to my right
And there
she waited...laughing in my face.
She was standin'
like a statue and was backlit by the sun.
I shook so
hard coins rattled in my jeans.
I could feel
my heartbeat poundin' like the recoil of a gun.
My rowels
were janglin' tunes like tambourines.
As I raised
the shakin' rifle, bugs were crawlin' in my veins.
I levered
in a shell for her demise.
A thirty-thirty
center fire, one hundred and fifty grains,
And shot'er
dead...right between the eyes.
You could hear
that gunshot echo all the way to Mountain Home.
The rolling
boom just seemed to stay and stay
And it drummed
it's disapproval like a dying metronome,
A requiem
that haunts me to this day.
I climbed out
of Bruneau Canyon with my saddle and my gear.
A grizzly
greeting filled me with despair.
See, my so-called
friends left me to rot. The reason why, was clear.
They'd staked
a cross... in honor of the mare.
The rest, well,
you can figger out. But my Daddy always said,
'You gotta
play the hand that you been dealt.'
I done made
that sow a martyr and I wish that I was dead,
Because, my
friend, I know how Judas felt."
