Wild West
Author: Bill Roberts
It takes practice
to ride a cactus.
City slickers
feel the stickers.
Real cowgirls and cowboys
don’t make the OW! noise.
They ride ‘em hard,
never get scarred.
You too can ride….
if you have a tough hide!
(Published originally in the wonderful children’s magazine, Cricket, quite a few years ago when I used Bartlett Boswell as my pseudonym)
Note: I often use this poem to warm up an audience when I recite. To get them in the mood, I suggest they imagine themselves as six-year-olds again, wearing a cowboy/cowgirl outfit, sixshooter tucked in a sagging holster, staring up at one of those gigantic saguaro types of cactus with its many prickly arms, and the cactus stares down at them, repeating this poem of warning. Would I enjoy being a kid again, say, just for a few minutes? Wouldn’t we all?
