Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PARDNERS, by BERTON BRALEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PARDNERS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You bad-eyed, tough-mouthed son-of-a-gun
Last Line: You ugly ol' scoundrel, you!
Subject(s): Animals; Cowboys; Horses; Ranch Life; West (u.s.); Southwest; Pacific States


YOU bad-eyed, tough-mouthed son-of-a-gun,
Ye're a hard little beast to break,
But ye're good for the fiercest kind of a run
An' ye're quick as a rattlesnake.
Ye jolted me good when we first met
In the dust of that bare corral,
An' neither one of us will forget
The fight we fit, old pal.

But now — well, say, old hoss, if John
D. Rockefeller shud come
With all the riches his paws are on
And want to buy you, you bum,
I'd laugh in his face an' pat your neck
An' say to him loud an' strong:
"I wouldn't sell you this derned old wreck
For all your wealth — so long!"

For we have slept on the barren plains
An' cuddled against the cold;
We've been through tempests of drivin' rains
When the heaviest thunder rolled;
We've raced from fire on the lone prairee
An' run from the mad stampede;
An' there ain't no money could buy from me
A pard of your style an' breed.

So I reckon we'll stick together, pard,
Till one of us cashes in;
Ye're wirey an' tough an' mighty hard,
An' homlier, too, than sin.
But yer head's all there an' yer heart's all right,
An' you've been a good pardner, too,
An' if ye've a soul it's clean an' white,
You ugly ol' scoundrel, you!





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