THE COWBOY WITH THE WORD HERD
This is the story of Weird Ward,
A cowboy from up 'round Seward.
He talked real rich,
Like a man with a pitch.
By birth, he was a noble lord.
Now Weird Ward had a large herd.
Not cattle, but a range full of words.
The five-dollar kind,
Used by design,
And sometimes even backwards.
The words in Weird Wards word herd,
Were words that most had never heard.
A pocket dictionary,
Was always necessary,
To decipher his nouns and verbs
On occasion whenever he slept,
We heard him say "biblioklept."
Talkin' in his slumber,
With reason to wonder,
We were always in his debt.
What does it mean, we pondered.
Words can't be wasted or squandered.
Like cattle gone mad,
There's no word that bad,
Just some that need laundered.
"You fellers use the word 'Rustler,'
For a cattle thief hustler.
My word herd doesn't.
I use your word's cousin.
I know, it's a real puzzler."
"A 'Biblioklept' is what you are.
When you steal my star,
My five-dollar words,
Reducing my herd.
A word rustler is what you are."
© 2026 Brian McNeal
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