Cowboy Poetry: "The Drought" by Jerry Laskody
This is a poem about the challenges ranchers face during a drought.
May 2, 2016
Each morning when he wakes up
He searches the western sky
Then checks the daily weather report
And lets out a disgusted sigh.
The snow pack it was average
And things were looking fine
Then 'long about mid-April
Came the first tell tale sign.
Instead of normal rain fall
Why the weather it was dry
And the temperatures they got warm
Well it felt like mid-July.
Optimistically he thought
It will surely rain in May
And if it didn't why there's still time
For a wet June to save the day.
To be on the safe side
And to keep the grass 'a growin'
He turned the sprinklers on
So in July he would be mowin'.
He put water on the pastures
Got to keep those cows a'milkin'
And them new born calves
He gotta' keep 'em growin'.
May has come and gone
And it keeps getting' drier
The run off it's comin' early
And the situation is looking dire.
The BIA who runs our Project
They are surely misbehavin'
Instead of storing precious water,
None of it they're savin'.
The temperatures are getting hotter
And the ground is gettin' drier
Here it is mid-June
And we're worried about fire.
Surely it will rain in June
It always has before
But the month it just passes
Without a big downpour.
He cuts the hay in July,
In the blazing summer heat
But it's only half a crop
So once again he's beat.
He keeps the water sprinklin'
Hoping for a break
If the water runs out early
Was this strategy a mistake?
Now he's thinkin' of Plan B
Wean 'em early and sell 'em light
Or start buyin' extra hay?
It's hard to know what's right.
When your partner is Mother Nature
She's as fickle as can be
Ya' gotta' expect some bad years
It just happens naturally.
Ya' just keep rollin' with the punches
And keep tryin'to do yer best
Yer brain is workin' over time
Dealin' with each new test.
There's one thing about most cowmen
Some folks just call it grit
Never once does it cross his mind
That he'd give up and quit.
He knew this day might come
When he picked this here profession
But he wishes that it hadn't
And to that he'd be confessin'
Well this story it ain't over
And it sure ain't nothin' new
'Cause every year some cowman somewhere
Has to face it with much rue.
This verse might sound like whining
But I deny that this is true
It's just a reality of ranchin'
And all you cowboys know it, too.
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