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COWBOY
RETIREMENT PROGRAM
by "Doc" Dale
Hayes
(Dedicated to Lee Bellows, one of Canada's top bull
fighters and a good man to have around.)
He is 54 years old
and looks like he is smart enough to come in out of the cold.,
and by all outward appearances in his right mind.
He could not jog a half mile, even if his life depended on doing it.
But every Friday and Saturday night he clowns up and goes out to find
A bull to fight, a barrel to hide in as a bull goes to goring it
And some dusted cowboy to protect and save
from getting bull stomped and taken off to an early grave.
He's a rodeo clown by evening and night
and a bull fighter looking for some bull to fight.
Duded up, in bright yellow barrel, purple flowers painted all over
with fourteen hats hidden in his ride and a bright green wig the color of
clover.
By day, a cattle inspector, working for hire by the provincial authority
and by night, a super hero working ( to hear him tell it) with great sobriety
to demonstrate his care for his fellow man
by saving every crashed cowboy that he can.
Plodding along in front of the crowd
and shooting his marsh mellow plopping sling shot
you just know he is mighty proud
of blowing his nose and spraying confetti snot.
Once he was a top hand, bull riding, bronc riding, calf roping Yee Haw!
He was one of the best you ever saw
but time catches up and pulls you off the hurricane deck
and, if you're fortunate, before you end up a total wreck.
So to take those skills that kept you alive and sharp
and help them young fellers from playing a harp.
I'll tell you right now, Mr. Bull Fighter, Mr. Rodeo Clown
Them young fellers are darn glad that you are around.
So you keep up being loud and noisy and being right there
And forget about settling down in that old rocking chair.
That is unless you can find some way to strap it on tight
to your barrel and use it in your next bull fight.
"Doc" Dale Hayes© 2004 All rights reserved.
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Bull fighting
takes a ton of courage. Below is a photo of a rodeo
clown who wasn't so lucky the day this photo was taken
during the NFR Rodeo in Las Vegas. Bull Fighter Darrel
Diefenbach was thrown into the air by a bull named "Dippin
Super Cool" The photo was taken by John
Locher for the Las Vegas Review Journal; and it is
featured here with his permission.
Rodeo bull fighters below; Jason Lafreniere (left) and Lee Bellows
(right).
Lee Bellows is a popular rodeo clown in the
Canadian Cowboys
Association (CCA).
He has a passion for rodeo and is totally dedicated
to the sport. The foregoing poem by "Doc" Dale Hayes provides a good overview of
the daunting responsibility that is his. During the day, he is the District
Supervisor of Inspection and Agricultural Field Services- South Central District
of Saskatchewan.
He is highly respected in Saskatchewan not
only for his service as a provincial government official and his courage
and showmanship in the rodeo arena, but also for his common sense and
great wit. Bellows is also a cowboy poet. Here is a verse with
a few of his thoughts. Enjoy!
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What's your thoughts on gun control?
They ask, but they don't hear.
They run 'round ``chicken little style''
and share with us their fear.
I've done a bunch of ponderin',
and its become plain to see
the controlling of my old rifle
would be the best if left to me.
Your logic misses the point, my friends.
Don't inflict your values on to me.
Life's different where the pavement ends
and you know what's bothering me
Well, I'll tell you with this rhyme,
You've went and gone and convicted me,
before I done the crime.
Lee Bellows
© All rights reserved.
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"Doc" Hayes is a professor at a public university in Manitoba,
Canada. "Doc" Hayes runs a small grazing operation for cattle of
relatives and neighbors back in the bush near Nesbitt, Manitoba and,
each year travels to different gatherings and poetry festivals
around North America. At one time, he tried rodeoing but a blind
bucking horse convinced him that what he was was a school teacher.
Since then his non-job focus has been on studying and recording
tales of the cowboy way. He came by his love of western storytelling
and cowboy poetry as a result of sitting in on bunk house bull
sessions in Northern Arizona back in the late '40s.
For over forty years he has collected cowboy stories and
remembrances of Canadian and American cowboys that often serve as a
basis for his poetry.
He has had several books of poetry, academic and western, published
and his recent cd-rom Conversations With an Old Horse is made
up of his own original poetry and several selected stories of the
"Old West," backed up by several good traditional western
musicians.
"Doc" Hayes
has spoken at over 400 educational and organizational training and
motivational meetings since the mid '70s. He has been featured at
many of the major gatherings in both Canada and the United States.
"Doc" is the producer and host of the Brandon Cowboy Poetry
Gathering and the Canadian Cowboy Christmas: and he has been
featured on both regional and national television shows on Cowboy
Poetry. He is a member of the Academy of Academy of American Poets
and the Academy of Western Artists. You can read another poem of
Docs, "Blowing Snow"
at The Cowboy Poetry of
Casey's Corral.
Your comments are
invited.
dochayes@prairie.ca
Under copyright protection. The
poems on this web page may not be excerpted, copied, or reproduced,
used or performed in any form (graphic, electronic or mechanical)
without the express written permission of the authors.
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