Ronin of the Rope

He stepped off the plane with a Stetson in hand

Boots on the tarmac, a stranger in land

From Osaka to SeaTac, the dream rode along

A cowboy in spirit, a rider in song

"Samurai of the saddle, ronin of the rope"

He whispered through rain with a heart full of hope

He thought every corner would echo John Wayne

But Seattle was steel, neon, and rain

The Pike Place fishmongers threw salmon like spears

While he tied phantom lassos and swallowed his tears

On Broadway he wandered, on Yesler he prayed

For tumbleweed deserts that never displayed

He bought spurs on eBay, a belt with a star

Practiced quick draws alone in a dive karaoke bar

Cowhide in the drizzle, ten-gallon hat soaked

The crowd only laughed at the dream that he spoke

"Ronin of the rope, spirit of the plain

I’ll ride through the mist, I’ll outpace the rain"

Yet the city just stared with indifferent eyes

And his lasso of longing kept tangling in lies

At dawn by the Sound where the ferries still creep

He carved his confession the waves would keep

"The west that I worshipped was dust in a reel

A shadow of shadows, a myth made of steel"

"I came as a rider, I leave as a ghost

A cowboy of sorrow who longed for the most"

In the hush of the morning he drew out the blade

The steel of his fathers, decisions long made

A bow to the mountains, a sigh to the sea

He fell like a ronin where no one would see

Now the gulls circle high and the rain softly weeps

For a cowboy of Nippon whose dream never sleeps

"Samurai of the saddle, ronin of the rope

May the plains of the spirit still honor his hope"