Buffalo

               Buffalo

I had such a prejudice against rednecks
I got in a relationship with one
just to find out what it was all about

A relationship with a redneck
means when you go camping
there's got  to be a Colt 45 in the tent
You learn the names of all the guns
his special room is filled
with pelts and horns
just to remind him of what he killed

he drives a big red truck
and takes the back roads
away from population
his hero is John Wayne

One time I asked him
if he could go back
to any time in history
what it would be

and he said he'd find himself
on a hill in Texas
on a day the buffalo converged . . .
millions of buffalo black on the earth

commercial bison slaughter
last year was a record 34,444 animals
consumers turned to bison
as an alternative
to beef in the wake of the discovery
of mad cow disease
someone's dreaming of
buffalo ranches in Hokkaido, Japan,
to serve at a specialized restaurant
like the media mogul
Ted Turner's Montana Gill

but i listen
and i hear
the drums
and the song
within the winds --
and in the distance
I see the herd . . .
blackening the plain

(c) 2005