By Olive Shooter
Here’s the latest contribution from the Rose City Writers – poetry from OLIVE SHOOTER…
A lot has been written
About the stockman’s hat
How he couldn’t be without it,
How it’s a friend and all that.
Now I know that it’s important
And he’s got a special style
He’ll wear it ‘till it’s worn out,
And after that for quite a while.
Then the horse the good old stock horse,
We’ve heard so much about it
And what would a stockman do
If he found himself without it.
It’s always faithful to him
If we believe the stories
And most of them are probably true,
Let horses have their glories.
But there’s another unsung hero,
Gets the stockman out of strife,
That’s his other true companion
And I mean his pocketknife.
When he gets up each morning,
It goes on before his hat
It’s always on his person,
You can be quite sure of that
He uses it to cut his bread
And then to spread the jam
It peals his apple, stirs his tea
And opens cans of spam.
It’s been out ten times by lunchbreak,
Cut pump leathers at the bore
He’s used it as a lever
And screwdriver, that’s for sure.
It’s handy with a bale of hay
Or cutting any string
It’s got a hundred uses
And can do most anything.
Out it comes to bang the cow’s tail
And other operations
With it he skins a dead sheep
And sometimes does castrations.
It’s a wizard as a trocar
When the cattle bloat on clover
He cleans his horse’s hooves with it
And cut burrs out of Rover.
Sometimes he cuts a grease rag
Out of his shirt tail,
Any time he needs his knife
He knows it will not fail.
It doesn’t matter how tired he is
When he gets home at night
He hones it till it’s razor sharp
And see that it’s alright.
But it’s still not finished for the day
It’s been over hills and dales
He takes out splinters with it
And cleans his fingernails.
He gives his boots a good old scrape
With his little pocketknife
And he wouldn’t be without it,
It’s as handy as a wife.
