Poem: "With His Boots On"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the October 5, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by prompts from e_scapism101 and ladyqkat, exploring how a new house might be haunted.  It was sponsored by ladyqkat.

See also the story " Eldis" by rix_scaedu, inspired while reading this poem.

With His Boots On

The house was new,
but the land was old.

Before there were cows,
there were bison.
In time, people came
to hunt the bison and
to call the land sacred.

Then other people came,
and brought their cows,
and no one remembered
that the land was sacred

but it still was.

The cowboy was diligent
about his work.
He cared about his cows.
He was out riding herd on them
when he died with his boots on,
and still he rode, watching
the lowing herds.

In time, the cows
went away,
as the bison had gone
before them.

The cowboy wandered,
bemused, among the houses
that sprang up like strange mushrooms.

Giggling children played
cowboys and indians
among the stories of the houses.
Sometimes they glimpsed him or
heard the stamp and jingle of his passage,
but they never spoke about the cowboy

until they were grown,
and had moved away,
and began to wonder
why a new house had been haunted.