A Christmas Eve Tale
Ingomar Style, 2014

A Christmas Eve tale in which Ingomar’s cowboy poet, Owen Badgett, had a run in with the snow on Christmas Eve, and Santa saves the day.

Twas the night before Christmas and it was pretty darn cold
Ingomar’s winter had taken it’s hold
Smoke stacks were puffing and horses breath showed;
While Owen was swearing at his Bronco in the cold.
He’d gone down the road to grab him some wood,
But his vehicle quit him; quit him real good.

Now Owen was a horse guy or counted on mules,
And he figured that counting on trucks was for fools.
No matter, he was stuck, and that’s how it was,
And he’d better start hiking the few miles because,
He never used cell phones; he didn’t have his stuff,
He’d made Morris mad, if that wasn’t enough.

They’d argued about something, as neighbor’s will do.
And they’d finished the evening in quite a stew.
The townfolk were nestled in their bunks good and tight
They’d never hear him, if he yelled the whole night.

Owen didn’t like Christmas; he didn’t like gifts
He didn’t like much as he dragged through the snowdrifts.
When what to his wondering eye should appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.
With a little old driver so lively and quick
Even Owen could tell it had to be St. Nick.

Owen blinked his eyes twice to be sure what he saw
Admiring Santa’s team, and the reindeer he saw.
Santa hooked up the bronco with a towrope he found
And wiggled his nose, and they all left the ground.
They had deliveries to make, and that had to come first.
Owen would be home after circling the earth.

It was quite a trip as they went round the world
Leaving presents down chimneys; for boys and for girls.
Santa was a teamster that Owen admired,
And the reindeer kept flying – they never got tired.
Whizzing around being towed in the sky
Was almost as good as a buck on the dry.

Before dawn broke it’s light in Owen’s little town
Santa landed the sleigh and turned all around
He unhitched the bronco and checked all his lines
It had been quite a trip, but Owen was fine.
He was home, not sure how, had it been all a dream?
Eight reindeer and Santa, they made quite a team.
He opened his door, and the fire was aglow
Who had lighted that fire? He still didn’t know.
He saw a wrapped box and a small Christmas tree.
New tools for his Bronco. That he could see.

He went to thank Santa for a pretty good ride
But Santa was busy taking off just outside.
Owen heard him exclaim as they flew out of sight,
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Goodnight”
Ho, ho, ho