American Cowboy Americans love the cowboy image riding on the plains, Independent, solitary, romantic, the mythic idea remains. Movie westerns fill our heads with all of its  allure, While horses gallop on ahead, stepping in manure. Cowboy Hats tilted back, up on top the saddle they sit, Two revolvers on  their sides, such a powerful fit.. The Marlboro man, selling cigarettes, you could be so cool. Pick up a pack, strike a match, and you are made the fool. Cattle drives, heading north, to be slaughtered for a steak, Buffalo roaming, almost wiped out, couldn’t catch a break. Lassos swinging around in the air, strung around the throat Pulled back hard, and tightening,  this cow will end a leather coat. It’s all a wonderful thing, if the ideal ever really did exist. In the Saloon, after the gunfight, the girls sometimes would resist. Poem by Michael Juchnowski