Traditional & Folk Songs with lyrics, midis & Mp3
Tall Men Riding
Tall Men Riding
Tall Men Riding
(S. Omar Barker)
Oh, the high hawk knows where the rabbit goes,
and the buzzard marks the kill
But few there be with eyes to see the tall men riding still
We hark in vain on the speeding train
for an echo of hoofbeat thunder
And the yellow wheat is a winding sheet
for cattle trails plowed under
Hoofdust flies at the low moon's rise
and the bullbat's lonesome whir
Is an echoed note from the longhorn throat of a steer,
in the days that were
Inch by inch, time draws the cinch,
till the saddle will creak no more
And they who were lords of the cattle hordes
have tallied their final score
This is the song that the night birds
sing as the phantom herds trail by
Horn by horn where the long plains fling
flat miles to the Texas sky
And this is the song that the night birds wail
where the Texas plains lie wide
Over the dust of a ghostly trail
where the phantom tall men ride
Squire Omar Barker (b. 1894), honorary president of the
Western Writers of America, has been a rancher and a teacher,
and was once elected to the New Mexico legislature. Look for
more of his poems in Vientos de las Sierras (1924) and
Buckaroo Ballads [!] (1928), as well as many pulp magazines
and a couple of anthologies.
To the the tune of Tramps and Hawkers.
JN
oct96