Young Ethelbert Meets the Buffalo
onc’t I was out walkin’ the mountains
mindin’ my own, don’t cha know
when down in the cache creek canyon
I startled an ol’ buffalo
he seen me afore I sawed him
by only a second it wuz
an my heart went to beating like crazy
as it sometimes un-naturally does.
seems I wuz a blockin’ his exit
as I stood in the tall, rocky draw
in the narrows of cache creek canyon
a fer piece from my maw or my paw.
well he circled an started a runnin’
I froze in skeer o’ my life
for he was a comin’ straight t’wards me
an I wuz headed for hurtin’ an strife!
so I turned to flee that thar critter
but I tripped on a tumbleweed bush
an as I on my hands an knees was a ris’n
I shortly was given a push.
now I was a skinny young feller
not weighin’ much more than a hair
so when that bull got a holt o’ my rump
well – I went sailin’ away through the air!
yep, I was a tumblin’ all over
up thar in that mighty blue sky
a doin’ some powerful prayin’ to God
that I soon shor ’nuff wouldn’t die.
then as I commenced to descending
near one side of that steep canyon wall
I spied me a juttin’ out oak branch
which I grabbed holt of to break up my fall.
an shor ’nuff that oak branch helt me!
an shor ’nuff the Lord saved my skin!
an I learnt me to pray with both eyes wide open
in sitcheashuns like that I been in!
– Jerry Dan Deutschendorf