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Tall Men Riding 
Tall Men Riding 
(S. Omar Barker) 
Oh, the high hawk knows where the rabbit goes, and the buzzard marks the kill 
But few there be with eyes to see the tall men riding still 
We hark in vain on the speeding train for an echo of hoofbeat thunder 
And the yellow wheat is a winding sheet for cattle trails plowed under 
Hoofdust flies at the low moon's rise and the bullbat's lonesome whir 
Is an echoed note from the longhorn throat of a steer, in the days that were 
Inch by inch, time draws the cinch, till the saddle will creak no more 
And they who were lords of the cattle hordes have tallied their final score 
This is the song that the night birds sing as the phantom herds trail by 
Horn by horn where the long plains fling flat miles to the Texas sky 
And this is the song that the night birds wail where the Texas plains lie wide 
Over the dust of a ghostly trail where the phantom tall men ride
 Squire Omar Barker (b. 1894), honorary president of the Western Writers of America, has been a rancher and a teacher, and was once elected to the New Mexico legislature. Look for more of his poems in Vientos de las Sierras (1924) and Buckaroo Ballads [!] (1928), as well as many pulp magazines and a couple of anthologies. 
To the the tune of Tramps and Hawkers. JN oct96