Saturday, August 10, 2013

Remaking cowboys


Silver shiny metal
in black leather holsters
and thin strips of dotted paper
we called caps that promised
to explode if hit precisely right

We were the wild west
in fenced suburban yards
where it was safe
to be the wild west

Swing sets were our forts
or encircled wagon trains;
we practiced being shot
and falling over safely dead
until the family dog sniffed
our ears and moms called
dinnertime and served up the grub

We were Roy Rogers and Gene Autrey
and Ben Cartwright and the Rifleman
and Matt Dillon and Rawhide
and the masked man known only
as Kemosabe and the masked man
from Mexico dressed in black
and carving Z everywhere

We remade the small screen
remade the large screen
remade the Caitlins and the Bodmers
and the Remingtons and grainy photographs
and kept the myth alive, the dream alive,
until we matured and became
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
until we matured more and used
light sabers and had sidekicks
named Chewbacca

Over at dVerse Poets today, the poetry prompt is cowboy poetry, which the above poem isn’t, exactly. But the spirit of it is close enough. To see other poems written from the prompt, please visit dVerse Poets.


Painting: A Dash for the Timber (1889) by Frederic Remington.

13 comments:

Brian Miller said...

ha. you def brought back memories with this one...we used to chase each other around with cap guns...making forts....oh yeah...smiles.

Anonymous said...

A nostalgic creation. Nice play of words.

Martha Jane Orlando said...

Oh, yes, how we've morphed! I remember so fondly playing those wild west games; yes, girls can play, too! Remember Annie Oakley? :)
Beautiful poem as always, Glynn, and it brought back such wonderful memories for me.
Blessings!

Mystic_Mom said...

Glynn thank you for this! What a great nostalgic cowboy poetic tribute to the cowboy heroes of our youth. The only difference between myself and your friends is we used real horses! :-) Thanks for joining in.

Mary said...

I had forgotten about Z - the mark of Zorro. Used to love that television program. You really have tweaked my memories with all of these heroes I used to enjoy watching week after week!

Anonymous said...

i like how at the end you acknowledge that Star Wars is really a cowboy/space-opera and not sci fi ans people seem to think, show don't really know sci fi


Midnight Cowboy — A Quick Review

Margaret said...

We were the wild west
in fenced suburban yards

back in the day, when kids NEW how to play.

Jennifer Wagner said...

Ha! Love how you ended this! Those were the days...

brudberg said...

Oh yes. Recall those western series being an inspiration to our games - great memories here

Janine Bollée said...

Now, THIS is "The real McCoy"!!
Impressive writing and a touching reminiscing into the bargain.

Anonymous said...

Ah, yes this all rang true for me. As well as the paper cap guns, I did have a phase with a spud gun, but somehow chasing around with a potato in my hand just didn't feel cool.

Wolfsrosebud said...

who didn't have a pair of boots and hat... now it's capes and masks

Truedessa said...

Great play on the imagination of children running wild..the backyard alive with magic.