{"id":20381,"date":"2024-01-09T00:45:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T07:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=20381"},"modified":"2024-01-08T14:47:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T21:47:29","slug":"old-man-in-the-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/09\/old-man-in-the-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Man In The Mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bryce Angell – The outdoors has always been a large part of my life. My father was an outfitter and guide for 35 years and I was there to shoe and care for the horses and help him do the cooking. We took many great trips into the Yellowstone area. Even now that I\u2019m older, we still ride into the Tetons, Yellowstone and surrounding areas. My poems are mostly of personal experience. I am now retired and enjoying life to the fullest. I plan to do more riding and writing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He kicked the goose-down blanket to the cold and wood-planked floor. You could see his breath as he was headed for the bathroom door.
\nHe tiptoed down the hall. His feet were bare, in need of socks. And wished that he\u2019d at least tried on his Christmas-present Crocs.
\nHis gout caused him to stumble, bumped a cracked and aging mirror. The cowboy\u2019s true reflection forced an old man to appear.
\nThe cowboy hesitated. Both hands were aged and shook. But he stretched and straightened out the mirror. This time he dared a look.
\nHis face was worn and wrinkled, gray hair knotted on his head. Eyebrows kinked and twisted showed a hint of younger red.
\nThe wrinkles in his face proved years of riding in the sun, and maybe too much bourbon from his younger days of fun.
\nThe cowboy quizzed the old man, \u201cAre you sure you\u2019re really me?\u201d The old goat in the mirror replied, \u201cYou don\u2019t like what you see?
\n\u201cYou\u2019ve walked past me a thousand times and never shot a glance. Your gaze into the mirror today is more than happenstance.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been a few years since you\u2019ve stood in front of this old mirror. And now you wear pot-belly shirts. You\u2019re drinking too much beer.
\n\u201cSo, please let me remind you how the two of us grew old. You chose the life of cowboy, but your life has been tenfold.
\n\u201cYou raised three boys on this old ranch and showed them how to work. They learned by pure example from a man who doesn\u2019t shirk.
\n\u201cI know you\u2019re disappointed \u2018cuz they moved off from this land. But now they\u2019re raising families. Hope you\u2019ll try to understand.
\n\u201cNo matter where your boys are, there\u2019s still cowboy in their veins. They\u2019re far off in the city, but their hands still hold the reins.
\n\u201cSo tell me why you\u2019re thinking that your life is all uphill. We still got all our teeth, and yes a healthy dentist bill.
\n\u201cA cowboy\u2019s life ain\u2019t easy. It\u2019s been tough on your old hide. But we\u2019ve earned the brand as cowboy. We can wear the name with pride.
\n\u201cCount your blessings, cowboy. There ain\u2019t many men like us. The reason why we\u2019ve lived so long, is we\u2019re one tough old cuss.
\n\u201cSo next time when you\u2019re feeling like you\u2019re lower than a splat, just step up to your broken mirror. We\u2019ll have a cowboy chat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He kicked the goose-down blanket to the cold and wood-planked floor. You could see his breath as he was headed for the bathroom door. He tiptoed down the hall. His feet were bare, in need of socks. And wished that he\u2019d at least tried on his Christmas-present Crocs. His gout caused him to stumble, bumped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cowboy-poetry","7":"category-commentary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20382,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20381\/revisions\/20382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}