Ridin’ Double Wild

She’s a motorcycle sister
He’s a bareback bronco twister
They’re ridin’ double-wild ‘cross the West.
She’s Mescalero Indian
He’s full-blooded Paladin
Runnin’ on a buck’s worth of Texaco high-test.

She drives that bike full-throttle
There’s still a half-full bottle
Of Mescal in her studded saddlebags.
He spurs those buckers crazy
But now he’s laid-back lazy
As HER batwing chaps are flappin’ just like flags.

            Cowboy grit, Apache pride,
            Wild hearts and minds collide
            In a fiery mix of youth and speed and steel.
            Hell on horses, hell on women,
            The West has changed, boys, look what’s comin’
            Rearin’ up and roarin’ toward you on one wheel.

John B. Stetsons and stampede strings
Sterling skull and crossbone earrings
Moonlight gleaming off her buckrein braids.
Sleekly forked to mean machine
Sinewy meets serpentine
Meets 200 proof of red-eyed renegades.

Leather jacket skinny-dippers
His fingers swim through all her zippers
Her pores like Braille across her tattooed neck.
Sipping from that beaded rose
Its stem of thorns beneath her clothes—
What he whispers in her ear could cause a wreck.

            They’re both livin’ high on ridin’
            Never circling’ or back-slidin’
            Get your holts, pop the clutch, skyward-bound.
            Pinto stallion, black and chrome,
            Painted metal, flesh and bone—
            It’s not always true that what goes up comes down.

Cowboy grit, Apache pride,
Wild hearts and minds collide
In a fiery mix of youth and speed and steel.
Broncs and choppers, who’d have guess it,
West meets West, boys, manifested,
Rearin’-up and roarin’ toward you on one wheel.

Rock ‘N’ Rowel CDs are available from the Western Folklife Center (phone 775-738-7508, ext 2) and CD Baby.

© Paul Zarzyski. All rights reserved. These words may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.