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THE
YELLOW SLICKER
She wore his yellow
slicker,
Though it almost drug the ground,
It seemed to make things
easier,
As if He was still around.
He’d left her some big
boots,
She was gonna’ have to fill,
But his old yellow
slicker,
It seemed to give her the Will.
The Will to keep on
going,
The Will to be wise and strong,
The Will to make their dreams
come true,
And remember, where she belonged.
She wore it to feed
the cattle,
And when she cleaned the stalls,
She hung it on that
high nail by the door,
And remembered He was tall.
She wore it
every time,
Storm clouds came rushing in,
She even wore it
sometimes,
Just so the tears would not begin.
She wore it to
keep the wet out,
And to hold the cold at bay,
It eased the hardness
of the ground,
Each time she knelt to pray.
She wore it to chop
the tanks,
And when she mended fence,
She wore it on the best of
days,
And on the ones that made no sense.
She wore it when it
was ragged,
And had completely lost it’s charm,
Because, if she was
inside of it,
She was back inside his arms.
It’s just an old
yellow slicker,
But it made her life complete,
It reminded her
what’s important,
And it kept her on her feet.
She wore it
across a lifetime,
And she never felt alone,
She raised their kids,
she raised their cows,
And she made their farm a home.
And when
she’s gone, she tells the kids,
Just hang it on that nail in the
barn,
Then look at it, and in your hearts know,
His yellow slicker,
saved the farm.
Debra Coppinger Hill
© 1996 Debra Coppinger Hill, All Rights
Reserved
"Dedicated with
love to " Miss Oleta", Native Texan, Friend.
Debra Coppinger
Hill, of Chelsea, Oklahoma,
 lives
the rural life she writes about. As the full-time ranch
manager of the 4DH, she draws on everyday experiences,
people and family members to give her poetry its first hand
feel. She and her family raise cutting bred horses, and
Brahma cross cattle, as well as bermuda hay. Her love of
the West comes from her Grandfathers an Great-grandfathers
who told the tales of Texas, Cowboy life and the stories of
the Cherokees.
Debra
has been honored by the Academy of Western Artists a Cowgirl
Poet Of The year and is published in various publications and
books. She is the author of Common Sense, Men and Horses, a
collection of Western poems and recollections. Her Album of
that name was named an AWA Top Ten Album and was the Southwest
Nighthawk Album of the year.
Debra's"Ridin' Drag" appears in the the Morris
publication Trade West and is featured at
www.Cowboys-n-Cowgirls.com
and various other publications. Debra's is a member of
Whispers of the West, a Western Education and performance
group that includes Catherine Devine, Jeff Streeby and G.Casey
Allen. They recently returned from teaching Western Culture and
Cowboy Poetry at the Gerard Manley Hopkins Institute in Ireland.
You can see their web site at
Whispers of The West .
You can contact Debra
Hill at e-mail:
dhillcowboypoet@yahoo.com
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