So I had nothing, Sarah-Jane, when you first posted this -- but today I was reading Jim's "Big Ag..." poem over on Metrical, and one of my favorite songs came on. They are perfect together. The step-grandfather who raised me was an actual, bona fide cowboy, by the way. He rode for the King Ranch in Texas back in the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwgRQEO8iKA
Don Edwards, Coyotes
Coyotes Lyrics
Was a cowboy I knew in south Texas
His face was burnt deep by the sun
Part history, part sage, part Mexican
He was there when Pancho Villa was young
And he'd tell you a tale of the old days
When the country was wild all around
Sit out under the stars of the Milky Way
And listen while the coyotes howl
They go, boo-yip, boo-yip, boo
Boodi-boo-yip, boo-doo-yip, boo-doo
Boo-yip, boo-yip, boo
Boodi-boo-yip, boo-doo-yip, boo-doo
Now the longhorns are gone
And the drovers are gone
The Comanches are gone
And the outlaws are gone
Geronimo's gone
And Sam Bass is gone
And the lion is gone
And the red wolf is gone
Well he cursed all the roads and the oilmen
And he cursed the automobile
Said, "This is no place for an hombre like I am
In this new world of asphalt and steel."
Then he'd look off someplace in the distance
At something only he could see
He'd say, "All that's left now of the old days:
Those damned, old coyotes and me."
And they go, boo-yip, boo-yip, boo
Boodi-boo-yip, boo-doo-yip, boo-doo
Boo-yip, boo-yip, boo
Boodi-boo-yip, boo-doo-yip, boo-doo
Now the longhorns are gone
And the drovers are gone
The Comanches are gone
And the outlaws are gone
Now Quantrill is gone
Stand Watie is gone
And the lion is gone
And the red wolf is gone
One morning, they searched his adobe
He disappeared without even a word
But that night, as the moon crossed the mountain
One more coyote was heard