Asphalt Cowboy Quotes

You want to leave the moat, to go back to the room; you’re already turning and trying to find the door, covered with fake leather, in the steep wall of the moat, but the master succeeds in grabbing your hand and, looking straight in your eyes, says: Your assignment: describe the jaw of a crocodile, the tongue of a hummingbird, the steeple of the New Maiden Convent, a shoot of bird cherry, the bend of the Lethe, the tail of any village dog, a night of love, mirages over hot asphalt, the bright midday in Berezov, the face of a flibbertigibbet, the garden of hell, compare the termite colony to the forest anthill, the sad fate of leaves to the serenade of a Venetian gondolier, and transform a cicada into a butterfly, turn rain into hail, day into night, give us today our daily bread, make a sibilant out of a vowel, prevent the crash of the train whose engineer is asleep, repeat the thirteenth labor of Hercules, give a smoke to a passerby, explain youth and old age, sing a song about a bluebird bringing water in the morn, turn your face to the north, to the Novgorodian barbicans, and then describe how the doorman knows it is snowing outside, if he sits in the foyer all day, talks to the elevator operator, and does not look out the window because there is no window; yes, tell how exactly, and in addition, plant in your orchard a white rose of the winds, show it to the teacher Pavel and, if he likes it, give the white rose to the teacher Pavel, pin the flower to his cowboy shirt or to his dacha hat, bring joy to the man who departed to nowhere, make your old pedagogue—a joker, a clown, and a wind-chaser—happy.

A truck turned the corner and rumbled its way over to our house. I watched it parallel park, then go silent as the lights switched off. The driver’s side door opened, and my best friend, Matthew, stepped down. His cowboy boots thudded against the asphalt, then crunched across the gravel that covered our front yard. “Howdy,” he said. I

watched it parallel park, then go silent as the lights switched off. The driver’s side door opened, and my best friend, Matthew, stepped down. His cowboy boots thudded against the asphalt,

COYOTEE" "Was a cowboy I knew in south Texas His face was burnt deep by the sun Part history, part sage, part Mexican He was there when Pancho Villa was young And he'd tell you a tale of the old days When the country was wild all around Sit out under the stars of the Milky Way And listen while the coyotes howl Well he cursed all the roads and the oilmen And he cursed the automobile Said, "This is no place for an hombre like I am In this new world of asphalt and steel." Then he'd look off someplace in the distance At something only he could see He'd say, "All that's left now of the old days: Those damned, old coyotes and me." Now the longhorns are gone And the drovers are gone The Comanches are gone And the outlaws are gone Now Quantrill is gone Stand Watie is gone And the lion is gone And the red wolf is gone One morning, they searched his adobe He disappeared without even a word But that night, as the moon crossed the mountain One more coyote was heard

COYOTES" "Was a cowboy I knew in south Texas His face was burnt deep by the sun Part history, part sage, part Mexican He was there when Pancho Villa was young And he'd tell you a tale of the old days When the country was wild all around Sit out under the stars of the Milky Way And listen while the coyotes howl Well he cursed all the roads and the oilmen And he cursed the automobile Said, "This is no place for an hombre like I am In this new world of asphalt and steel." Then he'd look off someplace in the distance At something only he could see He'd say, "All that's left now of the old days: Those damned, old coyotes and me." Now the longhorns are gone And the drovers are gone The Comanches are gone And the outlaws are gone Now Quantrill is gone Stand Watie is gone And the lion is gone And the red wolf is gone One morning, they searched his adobe He disappeared without even a word But that night, as the moon crossed the mountain One more coyote was heard