Duke LaRance is still upright and takin’ nourishment on the High Plains of Northern Montana!

Saddle Up Again and Ride

Told them folks I would get back up there
a’fore the snow flew, ain’t it something
the older we get, more and more 
seemingly empty promises go unkept?
World is ugly, frozen and brown
just patches of dirty snow
punctuating a desolate moonscape
all around
 
at this outpost, deadly sheets of ice
in front and in back silently covet my ankles
bolting up the new alternator 
into the new junker today, every car I own
is a, well, to be politically correct I suppose
a Native American car, that beast is going
to be ready and roaring to go, as am I
 
Frittering my life away 
need to get off dead center
ride for the brand, head for the spread
I will be drawn to Gramp’s homestead
when the coulees are greening up
I am a’gonna saddle up again, and ride

Far Away

We had been having a pleasant visit
my therapist, an attractive lady
thirty-something, long blond hair
in a ponytail, tall and slender
when things took
that obligatory turn for serious
as our session drew to a close
 
she asked in a soft, smoky voice
“Have you been having ideations?”
I paused briefly, looked into her eyes
and said, from deep within my chest 
“Doesn’t everyone now and then?”
 
with one eyebrow arched 
in that endearing way
that I will never forget
she got a far-away look in her eyes
like she could see right through me
which she could not
because I was not there

 There Goes the Train

Somebody said poetry has to be about real life 
down and dirty or it is nothing 
I sometimes wonder if I am a poet 
or a purveyor of doggerel at its worst 
have people been humoring me?
was my fifteen minutes up a lifetime ago? 
and on such a pathetic stage 
maybe I am merely someone else’s dream 
and they are not enjoying me 
 
hooray, I am retired now, what I always wondered 
is why men, especially, dry up and blow away 
when they no longer have waste their lives 
trudging off to work, love my work, hate my job 
loathe me, love my dog
 
but did I, did I love it? could have been worse 
at least I did not spend a career shoveling shit 
at the feedlot one hundred above, 20 below 
with my back whistling a happy tune 
been just a day over a week now 
since I was wished the very best of luck 
in all my future endeavors, it seems like yesterday 
 
I mean it was just yesterday wasn’t it?
please, God, I’m only seventeen! 
I sure hope the girls got to enjoy 
my birthday lunch at the Griddle Monday 
I do not remember what I had, likely nothing 
I had planned on ordering the patty melt
 
been saying for years that I would embrace 
and forever hold dear everything else were it such
that I just did not have to work anymore
there goes the train