Chinook, you're free: there's plenty pasture there: <br />Your gallant years have earned you more ... and <br />yet .. <br />Go on and graze! Don't stand like that and stare! <br />Now quit your nosing! No, I'll not forget. <br /> <br />You want some sugar? Lady's horse you are! <br />I reckon I've spoiled you. Some would say, <br />'A pet, that lazies by the corral bar, <br />Rubbing his mane and switching flies all day. <br /> <br />Chinook, they did n't know you as a colt: <br />We were some young and wild in those days, Chinook! <br />They never tamed a foot-loose thunderbolt <br />That pawed a star down, every jump he took. <br /> <br />Here now--my pocket's empty! Drift along. <br />Your saddle's off. Now can't you understand <br />We've made the last ride, sung the last old song? <br />They signed our warrant when they fenced this land. <br /> <br />Doggone it! This is not a funeral. <br />I've turned you loose for good, old horse; you're free. <br />Why don't you kick and squeal and act like--well, <br />Perhaps you feel it's tough to quit -- like me. <br /> <br />Say, if you will keep nosing me, why, there! <br />Listen! Do you remember how she came <br />Laughing--a rosebud pretty in her hair, <br />And I reached down? And how you played the game? <br /> <br />You, fire and trouble! that day you stood still <br />For once: and I was lucky. And that night <br />I turned you loose to graze on Flores hill: <br />The yucca never bloomed so tall and white! <br /> <br />Young days, young ways, and many trails to ride, <br />And Romance tugging at the bridle-rein: <br />Chinook, and if we swung a bit aside, <br />We always found the old home trail again. <br /> <br />And here we are! I reckon we're both free: <br />No wonder that you stand like that and look <br />So solemn and wise. What's wrong with me? <br />I'm talking wild, to-day, So long, Chinook!<br /><br />Henry Herbert Knibbs<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/so-long-chinook/
