Last Cowboy in Kittitas County 3/19/19

Last Cowboy in Kittitas County

Dedicated to Ryan Thompson, the first Ellensburg Police Officer killed in the line of duty for over 50 years.

 I saw a cowboy outside the courthouse today,

Across a street, perched on the low wall in the sun.

Having paid his dues inside that hole,

He wept over nothing and no one.

His Hat tipped flirtatiously from my gaze,

While he leaned gracefully in cotton and leather.

Poetry trickled from the brim of his hat

And scurried under traffic, toward me.

 I saw the last man

Who broke the law, right.

I smelled his oiled boots

And crisp kerchief.

I loved his lean form

And blue dungarees.

And Love always

ends in tears.

We all saw that cowboy

At the courthouse today,

And spoke of anything, but.

C.ray 03/20/19

305 #B

In darkness, she staggers through a bleary evening

that never stops until morning when she is done

fighting to breathe and

 eagerly readies herself to leave

the filth that she barely lives in.

C.Ray 3/19/2018

Featherlite

Our lives have been

rising and falling together; a feather drifts in mesoscale

and we, the fowl mites

travel.

CLR

Crossed Paths

If I had known how you would die,

would I have loved you more?

No--

For whatever you were living,

you were also dying for.

And

You are just a sample

of things that I have lost

no matter if I loved you,

take note our paths have crossed.

CLR 4/17

JB’s Eulogy

for Grandaddy:

There’s a tiny window

between birth and death

(The day you are born and you die.)

They are minutes and hours

Dressed up like years

To say our hello and goodbye.

Hello in the morning goodbye at night,

The moments between them,

You work and you fight.

To breathe and to live

to one hundred and one,

that's what you did,

and that's what you done.

clr 2017