The Rattle Bag: The B poems

froglipz · Thu Jul 07, 2011 8:14 pm

now, for a bit of a typing lesson:

The Buffalo Skinners

Come all you jolly cowboys and listen to my song,
There are not many verses, it will not detain you long;
It's concerning some young fellows who did agree to go
And spend one summer pleasantly on the range of the buffalo.

It happened in Jacksboro in the spring of seventy-three,
A man by the name of Crego came stepping up to me,
Saying, 'How do you do young fellow, and how would you like to go
And spend one summer pleasantly on the range of the buffalo?

"I will pay good wages and transportation too,
Provided you will go with me and stay the summer through;
But if you should grow homesick, come back to Jacksboro,
I won't pay you transportation from the range of the buffalo."

It's now our outfit was complete-seven able bodied men,
With navy six and needle gun-our troubles did begin;
Our way it was a pleasant one, the route we had to go,
Until we crossed Pease River on the range of the buffalo.

It's now we've crossed Pease River, our troubles have begun.
The first damned tail I went to rip, Christ! how I cut my thumb!
While skinning the damned old stinkers our lives wasn't a show,
For the Indians watched to pick us off while skinning the buffalo.

He fed us on such sorry chuck I wished myself most dead,
It was old jerked beef, croton coffee, and sour bread.
Pease River's as salty as hell fire, the water I could never go-
Oh God! I wished I had never come to the range of the buffalo.

Our meat it was buffalo rump and iron wedge bread,
And all we had to sleep on was a buffalo robe for a bed;
The fleas and graybacks worked on us, O boys it was not slow,
I'll tell you there's no worse hell on earth than

Our hearts were cased with buffalo hocks, our souls were cased with steel,
And the hardships of that summer would nearly make us reel.
While skinning the damned old stinkers our lives they had no show,
For the Indians waited to pick us off on the hills of Mexico.

The season being near over, old Crego he did say
The crowd had been extravagant, was in debt to him that day,
We coaxed him and we begged him and still it was no go-
We left old Crego's bones to bleach on the range of the buffalo.

Oh, it's now we've crossed Pease River and homeward we are bound,
No more in that hell-fired country shall ever we be found.
Go home to our wives and sweethearts, tell others not to go,
For God's forsaken the buffalo range and the damned old buffalo.
Anon

DireCari · Fri Jul 08, 2011 3:37 pm

I can't figure out how to get into the Shout Out box, and I'm too new to pm, so I guess I'll sneak my congrats to Penny in here. :baby:


	Quote: Re froglipz: It is interesting how Elizabeth Bishop tries to win us over to her own point of view.

"Interesting" is the best way to describe it. At least speaking for myself. I enjoy the linguistic technicalities, but that doesn't make me love the poem. :03:

I have to admit that more than a few of the Hughes/Heaney selections leave me saying...."eh."

But I'm using this as an opportunity to take a closer look at pieces I would probably pass over, left to my own ruminations.

I also notice that I take too much time to respond...so I may sneak ahead and read the D poems, to prepare comments for when they come up. :lol:

I may also sneak back in when the thread completes, to add a few comments on poems past.

If you don't see a post, you can be sure that I'm off somewhere thinking about one.

I'm glad I've found this site, this forum, and this discussion. :(love):

Saffron · Wed Jul 13, 2011 4:52 am


	DireCari wrote: I can't figure out how to get into the Shout Out box, and I'm too new to pm, so I guess I'll sneak my congrats to Penny in here.

First let me say, welcome and glad to have you on the poetry forum! If you cannot just type in the Shout Box it could be that your taking too long. If I just type a few words and send I am fine, but if I linger or make any correction while typing it will not send. It seems I time out in some way. Sometimes what I do is type what I want to say, copy and paste it in and hit the send button. It works every time. Also, do feel free to go back over the threads and make posts about poems previously posted. Sometimes it will get a new discussion going.

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