“I loved you more than I ever loved anything,”
Said the old cowboy with a tear in his eye,
“And now all I can do is curse at the moon
And ask why, oh why, did you have to die?”

“We traveled from Galveston to Abilene,
We conquered the Great Desert to the west,
We crossed the Divide more times than I can count,
There was never a river we couldn’t best.”

“I remember the trip south to Santa Fe,
When we outran that Indian war band,
We gave ‘em our dust and lived to tell the tale,
My God, you were full of sand!”

“Then there was the ride up to Oregon
Carrying Ma’s letter to Uncle Ben.
We did a hundred miles in a single day
And you were ready to go again!”

“And now you lie there cold and still
And it was my hand that laid you low.
A rocky trail, a rattlesnake . . .
Oh, my little friend, I loved you so!”

“The only light in this dark place
Is that you won’t be alone for long:
‘Cause when you fell, I followed you,
And I hit the ground all wrong.”

“My back is broke, my shoulder sprung,
I’ll die pretty soon without a fire,
I always said we’d ride to Hell together
I guess God didn’t want to make me a liar.”

“I loved you more than I ever loved anything,
More than women, whiskey, more than money,
So why, oh why, did you have to die,
My game little mustang, my Honey.”

This poem, originally published in "Characters: The Buffalo Soldier and Other Poems", ISBN 978-1-4357-1358-1, Lulu, 2008, was given to me by a big, fluffy, male cat named "Eazy" one night when he wanted me to turn the water on in the bathtub so he could drink out of it like a water fountain. The lesson here is be open to inspiration whereever and whenever it decides to show up. The Muse is fickle; don't let it get tired of knocking on your door.

Blackbead