July 2019 – Neil Meili

Neil Meili

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher

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Monthly Archives: July 2019

Too Much (of a Good Thing)

Farm, Nature, Ranch Life / July 31, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Mid July and it has rained
pretty much every day since May

All along highway 2
wheat and oats and rye
as lodged as a glutton on pie
no longer able to rise from the table
and feed the world

People praying in the drought
maybe shouldn't shout

Dad and Roy

Audio Recordings, Ranch Life, Relationships / tagged Friendship / July 30, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Dad and Roy were the best of friends
they drank and fought and played
and laughed like nobody laughed
for fifty years and more

Dad had a room in the nursing home
way down at the end of the hall
When Roy was admitted as well
a nurse wheeled him down that hall

They sat footrest to footrest a minute
then Roy said “So it’s come to this”
and they both had a hell of a laugh
Dad died in late December
Roy lasted three months more
They are buried twenty feet apart
in the prairie town where they played

I can see them there now
sitting on their shiny new stones
having a smoke and a chew
and a good pull on a forty of rye

Roy says “So it’s come to this”
and they both have a hell of a laugh

1 Reply

Mood Descending a Staircase

Relationships / July 29, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

What do I do
if daring to share
I bring you down too

2 Replies

Never More Beautiful

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged Cancer, Death, Friendship / July 28, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Visited last year and again last month
with old friend Lee in Tennessee

Ten years and more of cancer
and that Chattannooga choo choo
may be pulling out soon

The skin more and more transparent
the soul more and more shining through

I expect by the next time we drop in
a floating glimpse of Alice’s cat
with a Mona Lisa grin

Roundup

Audio Recordings, Cattle, Cowboy Poetry, Cows, Farm, Ranch Life / tagged Cowboy / July 27, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

It’s about the hardest dustiest best work a man can get

The pride of the heeling rope, thrown snake quick from a
good horse and the slow steady pull, dragging the white face
out where the boys with the hot irons can record the feat

Three hundred cows sing of calves lost and found, and above
and through it all the full strong laugh of one of the boys
where a slip was made or a kick well placed

At the end of the day, you wrap a rope sore hand around a
spring cold beer, and lean back against the old pole fence
deep in the pain, and the sweat, and the moment

Completely released from the wheel of desire
There’s no place you’d rather be
There’s no one you’d rather be with
and you’re too damn tired to move anyway

Ursa Erectus

Audio Recordings, Nature, Travel / tagged Bears / July 26, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Just outside the park
bear black as east slope coal
stands cub curious as we

The bright blue car goes by
he blinks an eye phone pic

Tells friends
“You had to be there”

Image by skeeze from Pixabay

War Wound

Relationships / tagged Dehumanization, War / July 25, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

You got it in the barracks
you got it with the gun

You got it when they taught you
not everyone is one

Image by Valdas Miskinis from Pixabay

Leaving Town

Audio Recordings, Relationships, Travel / July 24, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

With the last house at your back
and the last dog in the last yard
tired of barking

Still standing and still staring
at a line posing as horizon

The warmth and wounds of love
drying in the wind

Knowing that the world
is indeed flat
that you are only one
step from the edge
and that you will
fall off

Rule Britannica

Nostalgia, Remembering / July 23, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

Mostly musty now
Google-buried deep in library stacks
and garage sale ‘take it for a dollar’ boxes

Generations denied the pleasure
of sitting with a volume
rich and heavy to the hand

And knowing you could know
everything there was to know
about whatever started with an M
through whatever started with an O

Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

Breakfast at the Chateau Lake Louise

Nature, Travel / tagged Rocky Mountains / July 22, 2019 / by neil_2015_wordpress@neilmeili.com

The sun strikes early
on Mount Victoria
waking diamonds
in the old monarch’s crown
washing softly
down her ermine covered shoulders

While surrounding peaks
in playful disrespect
throw hand puppets
of bears and wolves
across her lower skirts

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