I drove north, lost in Wyoming along a river. A sun-dappled day, I was moving by looming blue mountains dotted with pine. Through a thousand-acre spread below a retirement village way at the top, I drove past highway-boys vanishing in clouds of dust while looking for downstream fun. I drove past hunters in dugout canoes, moving like wildfire on water and on I went still lost. I swung around a gang of Whitman's bare-chested men logging timber, then I stopped to watch a mutton-busting ride in a cow town. They had banners stretched from bank to barber shop. A river of red cattle pounded through town and went winding up a narrow road. I ask a cowpoke for directions while he held a lamb between his legs. With big shears in one hand he looked up and said, "Back where you came from." Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NEW LOVE AND OLD by SARA TEASDALE THE OLD ENEMY by SARA TEASDALE A BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 19. THE FAIRY QUEEN PROSERPINA by THOMAS CAMPION THE CUPBOARD by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE JIM DALLEY by ALEXANDER ANDERSON |