LAKE COUNTY — The following is a holiday poem just in time for Christmas:
The Day before Christmas
It was the day before Christmas and I’s on my way out toward Milk River with a sled full of hay
For feedin’ my cattle in two foot of snow that came out of nowhere a few hours ago
A pair of big Clydesdales was cuttin’ the track, my cowpony Toby was trailin’ in back
By now the sun had climbed pretty high into a shiverin’ blue cloudless sky
The temperature couldn’t have been more than two but up in these high plains that weren’t nothin’ new
As we skirted a coulee I spotted them cows down in the bottom and bawlin’ for chow
I climbed aboard Toby and snowplowed on down to push them lost doggies up to higher ground
I yelped and I hollered, I cussed and I nudged but nothin’ I done caused them cattle to budge
So I rode through the middle to move them around and you’ll never believe what this old cowboy found
A curly haired wobbly legged snow-white bull calf its age wasn’t more than a day and a half
Well how did that happen I surely don’t know my cows was done calvin’ way before time for snow
But that ain’t the mystery there’s more to be said it happens that all the cows I owned was red
I got down and scooped him up onto my horse and climbed on behind then we crow-hopped a course
Up the side of that coulee and up toward the sled with them cattle behind us in hopes to get fed
I got off my horse and shoved off some hay and made up a nest where the newborn could stay
Then up on the seat with a fistful of leather I prodded and snapped but that big sled was tethered
Those powerful Clydesdales they geed and they hawed, they lunged and they snorted, they wheezed and they pawed
They heaved and they pulled with all their great might but the runners was froze and the load was stuck tight
I cut loose the riggin and freed up the team as the first star of twilight started to gleam
Then back up on Toby that bull calf and I headed for home and place warm and dry
Them Clydesdales had got out of sight before long and soon the whole effort went terrible wrong
Out of the northwest it started to blow and out of the darkness it started to snow
My whiskers and mustache was covered with frost, my eyes was froze open, I was sure all was lost
Then up in the sky from the east came a light like a big carriage lantern, yellow and bright
And things got real quiet and that blizzard shut down, them snowflakes was floatin’ not hittin’ the ground
Then a sight I’ll remember the rest of my days three cowboys rode out of that frost bitten haze
On fire breathin’ mustangs that raked at the sky then made a big dido and started to fly
Well Toby he blowed up and broke right in half and come near to dumpin’ me and that calf
Them high flyin’ cowhands was leadin’ the way and that big yellow lantern turned night into day
Off like a gunshot old Toby flew and never quit runnin’ till the ranch came in view
Then just like they showed up them cowboys was gone and that big yellow lantern went out with the dawn
We got in the barn and I rubbed Toby down and made a straw bed for that calf that I’d found
I stoked up the stove when I got in my shack and brewed up some Arbuckle bitter and black
I sat down by the fire to let myself thaw while my brain tried to figger all the things that I’d saw
I still don’t know how to explain them events but that lantern has lit up each Christmas Eve since
That bull calf survived and now he’s full grown and most of my herd looks like strawberry roans
I never put much stock in prayin’ back then but when I remember the shape I was in
I manage to send up some words to the man who started his life back when Christmas began
Some say I went crazy when I lost my way I say the Lord saved us on that Christmas Day
— R.V. Schmidt
The Creative Expressions column is a space for local Lake County poets and writers to share their work with their community. Creative Expressions is supported by the Lake County Arts Council. For more information and to submit a poem or short piece of creative writing, email rvschmidt2@gmail.com.
