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Buffalo Bill

BOY heart of Johnny Jones—aching to-day?  
Aching, and Buffalo Bill in town?  
Buffalo Bill and ponies, cowboys, Indians?  
 
Some of us know  
All about it, Johnny Jones.      
 
Buffalo Bill is a slanting look of the eyes,  
 A slanting look under a hat on a horse.  
He sits on a horse and a passing look is fixed  
 On Johnny Jones, you and me, barelegged,  
A slanting, passing, careless look under a hat on a horse.    
 
Go clickety-clack, O pony hoofs along the street.  
Come on and slant your eyes again, O Buffalo Bill.  
Give us again the ache of our boy hearts.  
Fill us again with the red love of prairies, dark nights, lonely wagons, and the crack-crack of rifles sputtering flashes into an ambush.

Cornhuskers. 1918.

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