Song for a Cowboy

Once long ago when the west was wild,
When over the plains the wagons filed.
Under the bright cloudless sky,
In the wind you could hear the Apache war cry.

Upon this desert lost to the land,
Hit by the sun and by the dust fanned.
There rode a single man all alone,
Come from far 'way and by the sand blown.

Nameless and friendless the man of the west,
He'd won every gun fight and passed every test.
From morning till night onward he went,
Known by no one and by no one sent.

This kind man the west knew well,
The cowboy lone rider who never shot to tell.
The figure who stood on the hills long ago,
Or watched ever on from the plains down below.

Long he traveled  with no end in sight,
A rider by day and a loner by night.
Off in the distance you can see him ride by,
Brave and proud his hat held high.

Face to the sunset onward he rides,
Moving with the times and the sand and tides.
A figure of yesteryear long gone away,
A legend long forgotten may return someday.