seemed so long, and weeks eternities
between recesses and vacations, lifetimes—
especially when ranch work replaced trouble.
Through the gate like cattle counted now,
they pass six or eight deep—heads, backs
and tails eclipsed and so blurred, we
might have missed one, or miscounted since
the beginning of time. There is a place, like
here, just after that, days had neither names
nor numbers, great herds grazing the planet,
eras when we might have lost a year or two
under endless skies guided by starlight.
drycrikjournal 