IMAGINE THIS OLD MOMMA ON THE STAGE

                                 
With tremblin' heart
I headed down
to the Gatherin' out in Lewistown,
full a' hope I was, but fearful,
        one fine day,
with my  cowboy verses jinglin'
and my hopes and fears a' minglin'
and my nerves that were a tinglin'
        all the way.

It had seemed so darned invitin'
and had sounded so excitin'.............
just imagine me recitin'
         on the stage.
Just imagine this old Momma-
this gray-haired, feeble Momma
(this feeble-minded Momma)
with her kids a yellin', "Momma-
          act yer age!".............
just imagine me recitin'  on the stage... .


Well, I made my mind t' do it...
t' somehow muddle thru it,
for I knew that cowboy verses were the rage,
but I feared that ever after
I'd hear the raucous laughter.....
and the boos that shook the rafter.....
and the chants that swelled
for me t' leave the stage
t' cowboys who were steeped in purple sage.
 

Well, I didn't listen to it...
that voice that said, "Don't do it".
Instead I turned my hearing aides down low.
I took my liver pills from Dones
and shook my squeekin', creakin' bones...
and then I up and headed for the show.

  In the brand new cowboy duds I wore,
 I took the stage like Barrymore.
But then !!!!   
       But then!!!!
    But then I saw the crowd that jammed the place.
That's when this Hamlet froze up,
and the stage fright in me shows up...... 
and my new found courage slows up  
and this Momma nearly throws up in disgrace.

Couldn't say what I recited....
too brain dead.....too excited.
Could have been the cowboy verses that I wrote....
but it could have been a prayer, Folks,
for I swear that God was there, Folks,
a' strummin' on the chords inside my throat.

  I recited for the Gatherin'
 and when  I stopped my blatherin
 and this Momma bowed and took her "Last Hurrah"....
well, I just darn near flipped my cookie!!
They were rootin' for this rookie;
and clappin' for my children's dotty Ma!


                                              "Wacobelle"
                                          Bette Wolf Duncan
                                                                                                                        copyright ©10-3-2005 All rights reserved.                                                            

      The question www.cowboypoetry.com  asks of their cowboy poets is why they write cowboy poetry. They didn't ask me so I didn't tell 'em. It's a good thing.  If I had, it would likely have been considered one of the the most bizarre accounts  yet received.  How did I come to write cowboy poetry?  Well here goes.......          

                                                                        

         I have written verses for as long as I can remember...most of it was irreverent  satire. I also wrote poetry about Montana and the Rocky Mountains from the time I was in early grade school.  I knew the difference between verse and poetry...and while I wrote both, I enjoyed writing the irreverent verse a lot more. When I got bored in a class, which was quite often, I would write a verse for amusement.  As I got older, I continued doing this in  work related situations. The chief one that comes to mind was when I was a prosecutor in the county attorney's office. While assigned to the prosecution of  soliciting cases, I wrote a verse about some humorous aspect of each case.  I  shared them with my peers, who seemed to find them amusing. Thank God, I didn't keep any of these verses..... although to tell you the truth what  seemed risqué back then is pretty mild today.

      So what does this have to do with Cowboy Poetry you ask.  Well, after retiring, my husband and I got a computer...and I discovered the message boards on AOL.  I got to writing and posting verses of political satire. I loved it...and to tell you the truth, I ended up with a pretty large following of readers and a ream full of their emails. (Some of these poems now appear on Casey's Corral on the "Wacobelle's Political Satire" page....WACOBELLE'S CRASS COMMENTARY. Well I was going great...and then  came the bomb.  The censors at AOL kicked me of for writing the following :

                                                                           THE DEMO-DILEMMA                                                                      

   
                       I was crushed! I had been having so much fun....!!!!   Well, shortly after that I ran across some cowboy poetry web sites.....and from then on, I was hooked. I wrote a lot of cowboy poetry and verse. My husband's parents and grandparents were early eastern Montana pioneers.  He loved telling me about their many experiences and he enjoyed the many resulting poems and verses that I wrote for him. I, too, was born on a Montana ranch and raised by Montana pioneers; and my maternal grandparents were among the earliest settlers in southeast North Dakota. I had a lot to write about; and pretty soon I had a lot of poems.  I figured I needed my own web site. I designed and published one....and when that web site got filled up, I developed another web site....and then another. So there I was on the internet again, having the time of my life....in between the  nervous breakdowns  caused by computer problems.  Just kidding about the nervous breakdown....but I did in fact develop a bleeding ulcer when lightening took out my computer and I had to start all over.  You see, I knew hardly anything  about computers much less web sites when I started doing all of this.  I can't say I know a whole lot more today....but one way or another I have my three web sites up and running:
                                                                                    

 I still manage to write  verse and an occasional poem.   Imagine This Old Momma On The Stage is a brand new verse I had a lot of fun with.  
                                                                       
                 
                      

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