and when you got to Nowhere
all the girls had gone to the beach for the summer.
The old hand told us boys
the summer help
Don't worry about them cows
they won't bother you.
Just don't get between a cow and her calf
or a cow and a dog.
He was right
most times those sweet, dumb animals
wouldn't let you near them
they'd just drift away if you tried
unless you had a sugar cube
then you could walk right up to one
and scratch her hard black head
while a big pink tongue slopped your hand
and took the sugar.
Then one day while we were moving irrigation pipe
a dog hopped merrily into the pasture.
An old cow spotted that dog
and lit out after him like an angry brahma bull
chasing a hapless rodeo clown.
She'd have got him too
except her milked filled udders slapped against
her hind legs and slowed her just enough
so the dog could make his getaway under a nearby barbed wire fence.
Pretty funny sight to see
unless you were the dog.
On the other hand
the dog had been around a while
knew just how fast an old cow could run
and exactly how far it was to the barbed wire fence.
I'd allow since the dog was 50 miles from Nowhere too
and couldn't go to the beach for the summer either
he was drumming up a little fun
to break up the monotony of another day on the farm.
50 miles from Nowhere.
