Every Dog Has A Pickup

by Neva Bodin

I read an article in the paper one day about a foreign exchange student who visited Wyoming. One of his observations: Every dog has a pickup!

I loved that. How creative. Why didn’t I think of that? Anyway, a poem began forming in my head and I grabbed my IPAD to record it. I have read it at an open mic night at our annual WyoPoets workshop, and at my local writers group. Now I share it with all of you.

EVERY DOG HAS A PICKUP

That dog has a pickup

In the driver’s seat he sits

I’ll bet if I got close I’d see

A gun upon his hip

 

Now I see he’s a cow dog

There’s evidence of that

Just notice that long rifle

And the lariat on the rack

 

His blue eyes watch intently

The door of Molly’s Bar

Hoping soon his wrangler Jim

Can make it from that far

 

‘Cause sometimes when the day is done

And the dusty wind dies down

He hops into the pickup truck

And Jim drives them to town

 

He’s bitten dusty dirty heels

Got kicked a time or two

And helped Old Jim his partner

Wrangle cows ‘till day was through

 

So now old Jim is tipping

A beer or maybe more

And though a dog is patient

Sitting still is such a bore

 

The pickup window’s open

So he can get some air

His ears perk up as the bar door creaks

Perhaps Jim will be there

 

The door was only swinging

From a playful gust of wind

He sighs and turns his head away

Then I see a doggy grin

 

As a muddy rancher’s pick up

From the west comes driving up

And a cowgirl exits one side

On the other there’s a pup

 

Then by the pup another

Larger set of ears are turning

Toward his open window

And his whine belies his yearning

 

For the brown-eyed sheltie gazes

Back into the Aussie’s blue’s

And the pup beside her yips

Unaware he’s blue-eyed too

 

And so the two dog ranchers

Sit in their 4 x 4’s

Now gazing at each other

Never mind the old bar doors.

 

By the time you read this, we will be camping in the Rockies near an old ghost town where Amelia Earhart was building a log cabin when she disappeared. The cabin was never finished.