There’s lots o’ songs the puncher sang in roundin’ up his herds;
The music wasn’t very grand, an’ neither was the words.
No op’ry air he chanted, when at night he circled ’round
A bunch of restless longhorns that was throwed on their bed-ground;
But any song the cowboy on his lonely beat would bawl,
Wa’n’t half as sweet as when the cook would start the rub-pile call.
I’ve heard ’em warble “Ol’ Sam Bass” for hours at a time;
I’ve listened to the “Dogie Song,” that well-known puncher rhyme;
“The Dyin’ Cowboy” made me sad, an’ “Mustang Gray” brung tears,
While “Little Joe the Wrangler” yet is ringin’ in my ears.
But of the songs the puncher sang, I loved the best of all,
That grand ol’ chorus when the cook would start the grub-pile call.
There wasn’t any sound so sweet in all the wide range land;
There wa’n’t a song the puncher was so quick to understand.
No music that he ever heard so filled him with delight
As when he saw the ol’ chuck-wagon top a-gleamin’ white;
An’ like a benediction on his tired ears would fall
The sweetest music ever heard–the welcome grub-pile call.
I’ve laid at night an’ listened to the lowin’ of the steers;
I’ve heard the coyote’s melancholy wail ring in my ears.
The croonin’ of the night-wind as it swept across the range
Was mournful-like an’ dreary, an’ it sounded grim an’ strange.
But when the break o’ day was near, an’ from our tarps we’d crawl,
The mornin’ song that charmed us was that welcome grub-pile call.
(Earl Alonzo Brininstool)
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Based on Topics: Night Poems, Sadness Poems, Time Poems, Music PoemsBased on Keywords: ringin, coyote, throwed, dyin, puncher, lowin, brung, mustang, wrangler, heard-the, croonin