S. Omar Barker - Cow'pin Moo-sic

Cowboy with Range Cattle

Cow'pin Moo-sic

S. Omar Barker, author, 1928
as recited by Larry Schutte


You ask me "Well, what's a beller?"
A beller's a bawl,
It ain't exactly like a moo
Nor yet quite like a squall.
 
Cows sure'll 'moo to coax their calves
From close by in the brush,
And bawl at night at weanin' time
Until it was that she hush.
 
But when she beller's -
That's got a heap more meanin'
Than just plain “cow'pin moo-sic”
You hear when calves are weaning.
 
For instance, let a range cow smell
Fresh blood from some dead critter,
Than she'll sure “enough beller”
Like she thinks all hell will get her.
 
Find it down about her foot –
And the weird sounds she makes,
It's enough to give a man
The chills and shakes.

Then all the cattle 'round about
Will come snuffing at a trot,
To help her beller' for the dead
When they reach that spot.

There ain't no squall a banshee makes
To make your neck hair rise
Like that there bovine blood call
As it echoes to the skies.
 
A calf will beller' when
He's roped or branded –
And a cow she'll beller'
When she's on the prod.
 
And I better tell ya' how to tell a beller'
From a bawl for it ain't alone that sound,
'Cause a bawl is mostly pointed up –
But a beller's toward the ground.
 
And if yer still somewhat in doubt
Of these beller' facts,
A bawl becomes a beller'
When it's tongue is stickin' out.

Ever curious cows

Riding Range at Day’s End

A settling winter’s day over snow-capped peaks