POETRY

Cheyenne

Well, I'm a natural born cowboy from the high country range

Clean air and blue skies, God I hope it don't change

I don't make much money for a long hard day

And I think if I had to, well, I'd even pay

Well, I remember the Virginian at Medicine Bow

Sitting Bull and Custer, the Sioux, and the Crow

Buffalo Bill and Kit Carson, too

Legends that lived and the stories are true

And I'm breathing the same air

I'm riding 'cross the same land

Dreaming 'bout my sweetheart, in Cheyenne

Just dreaming 'bout my sweetheart, in Cheyenne

Well, I won't be a earnin' the wages of sin

Cuz I set my sails to the northern wind

And I'll ride tall in the saddle of God's glory plan

Riding on into Cheyenne

Dreaming 'bout my sweetheart, in Cheyenne

Just dreaming 'bout my sweetheart, in Cheyenne

Well, my past, my present, my future is right here

Cuz this is the place that has all I hold dear

And there's no where in this world that I'd rather stand

Than in those hills, overlooking Cheyenne

Just dreaming 'bout my sweetheart, in Cheyenne

- Words and music by Dominic Lanza, 1980

*Winner of the "Cowboy Poetry Contest" at Cheyenne Frontier Days (2011)

The Dave Logan Show, KOA Radio

This Fine Man

Well, I heard the news in a dark hallway

I was all alone on a cloudy day

I did not know how to feel or what it meant

I was just fourteen when they killed the president

Then they shot the guy that shot the guy

Then that guy died and we wondered why

Lots of questions but not a word

For none of the questions were answered

Well, they cried and cried, everyone

Then they buried him in Arlington

Then they tried and tried to fix the blame

But all we got was an eternal flame

Ah, Johnny, we miss ya

Oh, do we miss ya

Ah, Johnny, we miss ya

We do not know why, probably never will

But it seems we're choking on a bitter pill

We are sliding down a slippery slope

With no limit how low we will go

This fine man, this war hero

Thought a lot of us, and rightly so

He only asked of us that we

Should ask what we could do for our country

Ah, Johnny, we miss ya

Oh, do we miss ya

Ah, Johnny, we miss ya

- Words by Dominic Lanza, 2020