. Poetry from The Great In-Between: The Heartbroken Cowboy

Thursday, July 22, 2021

The Heartbroken Cowboy


(A lone voice whispers)

















The last time I saw you in an old photograph you lovingly sent

I held it up close 
Perused and smelled your enchanting scent


But now you've gone into the long shadows and barren fields 

Filled with wild rivulets of opinions which sing painful love songs filled with discontent 


I sometimes in this great golden silence wonder


Where did that golden hair girl go to pitch up her extraordinary tent


Was it in an encampment surrounded by hypnotised writers

Who hang love-struck on her every word and follow her fantastic poetic depictions

Blindly pursuing wherever she went


Or was it somewhere even more secretive

Where grey walkers in silent gardens 

Gather at midnight to lament and watch the silver moon ascend


As they all huddle together looking to the stars for answers and then cheer in unison and embracing whatever is sent


It's a particular conundrum that follows me around like a wrist bound lover 

Or am I just its now anointed slave


Making me wonder about the impressions I once in the middle of living

Willingly gave


That once beautiful lady who's now probably surrounded by knaves who bombard her daily with endless blue waves


Did I through my quest upon the broken mountains

Like Roland Deschain of Gilead 


Make the wrong decisions which will haunt me forever as it haunted him like Jake

A complicated juxtaposition simmering barely between love and hate


Did I hurt her too much and it's now too late

Did my relentless mission to find sacred answers to life at the top of my own Dark Tower


Made me lose someone so beautiful and powerful 

As I walked past her blossoming Indian Paintbrush flower


I guess as I grow older and as my life gets colder


When eventually in a few years when I stand before God and as he reads my life's great work 

Contained in that occult golden shimmering folder


I can only hope and pray he doesn't say


I sent you someone so beautiful that your soul so desperately needed 

To help you live a good life filled with so much love and fun


Why did you walk away my son

When all you needed to do was just reach out and hold her


Copyright John Duffy

I rather enjoyed creating this raw and emotional piece. Watching old classics in Black and White from the early throes of film-making inspires such prose. Salute.

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