Nightshift Cowboy
He brands cow pies
and rounds up fries
at Burger Bob’s
from 10 o’clock
till closing time
when he hops in his Mustang
and rides into the sunrise.
Cowboy’s Stent
It felt like
I’d swallowed
an electric fence.
The medicine men
reckon
a heart attack.
Sent me and a posse
to the Bill show
with a bag of balloons.
Made me foreswear
the bed-house
and shun the saloons.
Back at the ranch
I pop a pannier
full of pills
Corralled by
get-well cards
and a muckheap of bills.
Frank William Finney was born in Massachusetts and educated at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Simmons University. He has recently retired from teaching literature at Thammasat University in Thailand, where he taught for 25 years. He is currently employed as the caretaker of three cats: Fluffernutter, Karma, and Dappledots. They sometimes watch him while he taps or scribbles.