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Cornhuskers/Buffalo Bill

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144312Cornhuskers — Buffalo BillCarl Sandburg

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.