Roy Rogers, Trigger and Me

Yeah, there were times
When, as a child of let’s say,
From seven to eleven,
That I would pretend
That I was a cowboy
Making believe
That I was riding a pony

I would make all of the needed sound
Effects that a real horse would make
Snorting and neighing and such
Pawing at the ground and
Even making my horse
Rear up on its hind legs
The way Roy Rogers’ horse
Trigger would do

My horse’s name was Pal
Short for Palomino
And he was a faithful
Steed indeed

We would ride the range
All the way from
Brighton Beach to
Sheepshead Bay
Taking the scenic route
Along the boardwalk
Sometimes venturing
Onto the sandy beach
And sometimes
Splashing through the water
Along the shore line
Stopping to inspect
The wide assortment of sea shells
And all the rest of the flotsam and jetsam
That the ceaseless tides
Might provide

I had quite a collection
Of horseshoe crab shells
And bags of broken beach glass
That I stole
From Old King Neptune’s
Treasure trove
My horse could gallop
And canter
And he could
Jump park benches
In a single bound

Look!
Up in the sky!
It’s a bird!
No it’s a plane!
No it’s Superman!
And all the rest of it

There wasn’t a commercial
Or a jingle
Or a TV show theme song
That me and my friend’s
Did not know by heart

It seemed we could all
Morph so easily
Into this or that
Cartoon character
Or comic book hero
Our minds and hearts
Were open to everything
That the whole wide world
Had to offer

And what would the world
Expect of us in return
Our innocence
Our trust
Our love

What plans were in store
For this post war
Generation of dreamers
More wars to fight
For the honor and glory
Of the fatherland?

Some of us would go
off to fight the wars
And a good number of us
Would not
But whether we marched off
To Woodstock or Vietnam
We would always
Somehow
As a generation
Manage
To find our way back:

To those thrilling days of yesteryear
To a fiery horse with the speed of light
To a cloud of dust
And a hearty
Hi Ho Silver!
Away!
The Lone Ranger
Rides again!
(Yep, that’d be me!)

j.h.markowitz
Philadelphia, pa. 2011