The Whole of It

Me and Colt are helpin’ Mr Stricker and Regina

work their yearlin’ steers.

Outside the corral Laura and Jedidiah

who comes around on occasion to help out

are sittin’ on their horses watchin’

when a steer skids into a gate mashin’ Colt’s finger 

between the gate and a panel.

He takes off his glove and it ain’t pretty. 

Mr Stricker takes one look at it and says to Colt

get in the truck. 

He tells us take care of these steers.

Regina says go.

Colt’s kinda holdin’ his hand up and squeezin’ on his finger 

to staunch the flow and he ain’t sayin’ much. 

—

Jed offers to take Colt.

Mr Stricker says I’m takin’ him.

Laura says I’m goin’ too and they take off 

and me and Regina and Jed set to it.

It takes any number of stitches 

and no small degree of skill 

to sew up the tip of his finger 

but it don’t set him back too hard. 

He won’t be ridin’ bulls for half a spell 

and the feelin’s altogether gone

but it ain’t the worst. 

There’s more to ranchin’ than ridin’ of a pretty evenin’ 

and wearin’ a hat. 

I reckon Laura’s beginnin’ to see the whole of it.

—————

Rough Hewn

Jedidiah comes around on occasion 

to help on roundup 

and run cattle through the chute.

One look at Jed’s 

enough to put the fear of God in a man

on account of he’s so big and raw-boned and weathered 

and tough as beef jerky.

He’s also big-hearted and there’s nothin’ 

he likes more than tellin’ stories 

and pullin’ pranks.

I reckon Darly Boy can attest to that.

I guess what I’m sayin’ is appearances can deceive.

Jed’s a hard man

but he’s got laugh lines dug deep and a shine in his eyes.

—

Jed was raised country

and I don’t believe he’s ever set foot inside a Walmarts 

or a doctor’s office

though he has been stitched up by the vet more than once.

He’s cowboyed all his life 

and he ain’t afraid of a thing

only he don’t like workin’ cattle in close confines.

It sets him on edge.

When it comes to corral work

he’d just as soon be on the outside lookin’ in.

Which is fine by me.

He worked at the sale barn in town ’til it went belly up

and those cattle would come in the ring half crazy or better

and I expect that’s what done it.

—

Jed used to play it pretty rough.

So I’ve heard. 

As I heard it from him there might be somethin’ to it.

He said his first wife wasn’t worth shootin’

but his second wife is a peach.

Regina says she took the wander out of him.

I could tell stories on Jed’s horse named Horse

that he taught to jump in the back of a pickup truck

which ain’t the usual way

or the story he told on some ole boy 

that sold his wife for a nickel a pop behind the roadhouse 

back in the day.

But that ain’t what I mean to tell.

I mean to tell about the day Colt got his finger mashed.

—

I already told how Mr Stricker and Regina 

and me and Colt were workin’ cattle

and Jed and Laura were sittin’ on their horses 

outside the corral watchin’ when it happened.

How that steer hit that gate and how it slammed back 

mashin’ Colt’s finger against the pipe fence.

What I didn’t tell was what Jed said after seein’ Colt’s fingertip 

hangin’ by a thread and the color of Colt’s face.

He said I wish it had happened to me and he it said it low.

He wanted to take the pain off of Colt

simple as that.

He never intended anyone to hear it except I did.

A man might sit through a month of Sunday sermons

and never hear such compassion in a man’s voice.