Verse by The Lake One Cowboy aka Bobill
Click on a title to go to that verse
Lost In Space
Old Blue - A
Tribute
Forgotten Lines
A Promise Made
Curious Pansies
The Price of War
Marking Time
Anonymous
A Long Trip
A Dog's Life
Katie Smiled
Katie Smile when we met -
Looking up from the chair she sat in;
Ann Landers, you love to get
Sweets into your column -
So, put this in:
Say I'm romantic,
Say I'm a fool ...
By looks and brains denied,
Say I'm over the hill - but add:
Katie Smiled
Vanity
Farther from the halls of immortality
Than was Ozymandias - of Shelley fame,
I scribble these rude and unkempt
lines -
Aware (unlike he) - I dress them up - in vain.
Sent some messages to a friend -
Three or four;
But silence was returned -
Nothing more.
My thoughts went out in friendship -
Launched on a special kin ship (craft) -
Which, lost - must now -
Through space - forever soar.
Old Blue - A
Tribute
Old Blue, the Heron Hero, stands alone - aloof -
Apart from the ubiquitous hosts of strange creatures
Who gawk, and talk, and move about the park.
Who watch his rituals and imagine he watches them
With the same curiosity that impels them to watch him.
Who analyze his posture - his moves - his stares -
As signs of human innateness -
And - that he cares.
Unmoved - that he is more popular
Than lesser stars on American Idol -
And more photographed than Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley -
And Marilyn Monroe -
Old Blue goes his way, unperturbed, on nature's stage.
Shaped by evolution and rehearsed through necessity,
Old Blue wades and waits - and stares through lenses
Made precise for their singular purpose:
To spot and track a fish, his prey,
In clear or murky waters -
On a bright or cloudy day.
His weapon - a handsome, sharpened spear -
At the end of a long - graceful - neck,
Which, when drawn back, compressed and cocked
Is not unlike a coiled spring - or crossbow string.
And when Blue pulls the trigger, the spear
Is propelled with bullet-like velocity to deliver
A paralyzing stab that impales the unsuspecting fish.
This act is repeated - and, often, too -
Not to entertain admiring, doting, fans -
But, for the life of Old Blue.
Many a line of prose and rhyme,
Once writ bold upon my mind -
Have disappeared - quite erased,
Or else, are smeareeeed ... across the page.
Alas, the last I saw my friend,
I told him I'd see him after;
Now all is left is my regret
And memory of his laughter.
The void between that promise made -
And when it's finally kept
Exceeds the universe I know -
In length - and height - and depth.
Most Elusive Bird
Men hunt game birds of every stripe
They that shriek, or chirp, or pipe.
And stalk them anywhere they dwell,
Some easy prey, some hard to fell.
The most elusive bird around
Is often hunted - never found.
Many hunt the snipe - just once;
He who hunts him twice - a dunce.
A flock of curious pansies
With brightly colored masks -
Craned their very slender necks
To watch me as I passed.
The curiosity I aroused -
Had a short-lived stay,
For when I circled - round behind -
No heads were turned my way.
Join up brave young patriot -
Duty calls - and pride,
With flags a-waving smartly -
And a parent at each side:
One who asks you not to go,
And one who cheers you on,
Reluctant mother, willing dad -
The seeds were equal sown.
Welcome home fallen hero -
With solemn steps - and pride,
In flag-draped coffin - carried -
With a parent at each side:
One who begged you not to go,
And one who cheered you on,
Grieving mother, regretful dad -
The burden equal borne.
My motor car sucks up the road
And spits it out behind,
Marks the speed and counts the miles
Along the streaking center line.
And I record time passing
On the meters of my mind:
I sense a motion - and still - I know
I'm only marking Time.
Time
- used up forever,
(But to history and to thought)
On waving arms and blinking dials
And dreams that come to naught.
He was born unannounced,
And moves unseen,
And he's gained immortal fame.
No one knows him,
Or where he lives -
But everyone knows his name.
There once was a man named Serenity
Who said he came from infinity.
He said he came fast,
Not once was he past,
But it felt -------- like it took ---------- an eternity
We start
early - my boss and I
To investigate the beach,
And stroll among the visiting throng -
Together - leash to leash.
There's
much to check - so little time
To look - to touch - to smell;
I look - I touch - I take a whiff;
An object is revealed.
We pass
a park where children -
Giggle as they play,
And by the bier of the fishing pier
That Isabel snatched away.
We see
some buoys a - bobbing
Just beyond the beach -
And skittish-brazen gulls hobnobbing
Just beyond my reach.
Sometimes – I might quite succeed
To slip the bond between,
Race here and there - in solitaire -
And what does that all mean?
Not
much! – we’re soon united;
The parting's mostly brief.
No harm is done, it’s all in fun -
It never brings us grief.
A happy
pair we always are
In calm or stormy weather,
Linked each to each in solemn bonds -
Of room and board – and leather.