SEPTEMBER 2003 POETRY

Taurus Brand
by N. Ross Peterson

A Cowhand's Demonstration
by Claire Hurt

The American Cowboy
by Rick Church

Down On The San Rafael
by J.D. Kunze

They Still Do That by Dave P. Fisher

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SEPTEMBER 2003 issue

Read other poems by JD Kunze: View Archives

DOWN ON THE SAN RAFAEL
by J. D. Kunze

It's a thousand miles from nowhere
maybe just this side of hell
where the cedars shield life's mystery
and the wind whispers the tale

Of a country scorched and ragged
beaten' by the hands of time
Where a river steals the soil
and leaves the rock behind

And the rocks they bare lone witness
of the ancients from this place
an etched and painted history
entombed in time and space

And the mesas stand as sentinels
and the canyons hide the bones
of lost and forlorn wanderers
who made this place there home

And the cowboys who now ride thru'
this strange place that time has passed
can sometimes see the shadows of the ghosts
who breathed their last

Where the waters taste like alkali
and your prints fade in the sand
and the river gouges out a maze
thru' this parched and arid land

And the wind carries the voices
and the rocks display the tale
Of a people who once clung to life
down on the San Rafael

Copyright ©2003 J.D. Kunze.  All rights reserved.