Mama, I want to be a cowboy!

by Rich Slatta, the Cowboy Professor, NCCAT, 27 November 2001
And no, I don't plan to quit my day job.

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Mama, I want to be a cowboy.
- That's the dumbest thing I ever heard.
But Mama, I really want to be a cowboy.
- Hush, child, you're just being absurd.

Oh, Mama, I want to ride--no gallop--like the rushing wind.
- I don't want to hear this--now give me your word!
A big blue sky, tall green grass, tumbling streams--that's the life I love.
And at night out on the plains, all God's stars shine above.
- But what about college? money? fame? You can't just fly off like a bird.

Mama, I've always known a life in the saddle is the life for me.
- My, word, child, this nonsense must come from your daddy's side.
Please, please, let me head out West; I'm sure to make you proud.
- (sigh) OK, child, but please be careful, Lorie Ann, wherever you may ride.

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Here's another-- homage to two cultures -- the modern (20-year-old) Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering and the Northern Plains Ghost Dances of the 1890s -- written in 1998 by folklorist Barre Toelken

Cowboys' Ghost Dance

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Dusters held carefully open,
spurs tinkling lightly on laced boots,
lean-faced buckaroos with watery eyes
and fierce drooping mustaches
dance the hallways of Elko,
praying for the cattle to return.