New Classic Poems – Contemporary Verse That Rhymes

New Classic Poems
Family Matters
The Skeleton in Rawhide
Neil Harding McAlister
( With a tip of the Stetson to Mr. Henry Wadsworth Longfeller )
Speak! speak, you ghostly guest,
Who, like a cowpoke dressed,
In chaps and leather vest
Comes here to bug me!
In this nice restaurant
Six-guns and spurs you flaunt!
Why pick on me to haunt
They must have drugged me!
My head was feeling queer
After too many beer.
I would have run in fear –
But was unable.
Slouching to where I sat,
He hung up his lariat,
Pushed back his Stetson hat,
And slumped at my table.
Then from those limpid eyes
Red streaks there seemed to rise
Like when the stormy skies
Flash in Montana.
But, when the phantom spoke,
All he could do was croak.
He cleared his dusty throat
And loosed his bandana.
“I wuz an old cowhand.
I had adventures grand!
But no Zane Grey in this land
E’er told my story.
Though I wuz schooled a mite,
Maybe I ain’t too bright:
I never larned to write.
You do it for me.
“Call yonder waitress near!
Order us two more beer!
You’re gonna set and hear
‘Bout my days of glory.
You do just like I said,
Or like me, you’ll be dead
‘Cuz I’ll fill ya full of lead.
Then you’ll be sorry!
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