Ranch Widow
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Ranch Widow
“Más vale maña que fuerza.”
—An old Spanish proverb
She couldn’t have known exactly what would become of her tenure as manager of the ranch; her playful youth spent and her back completely bent. When called upon, hadn’t he always whooped and cowboyed up? Hadn’t everyone seen him grab a handy stick to break or drum on things, seen him throw a patch of dry dust up into the roiling air?
She—knowing about bait––loads the calves at night: eases them along with a tempting bucket of feed, slips behind to quietly shut the trailer gate: once again, the subtle play of patience trumping ruthless power. [End Page 184]
Scott Hightower, a native of central Texas, won the 2004 Hayden Carruth Award for Part of the Bargin, his third volume of poetry. His translations from Spanish garnered him a Willis Barnstone Translation Prize. He lives in New York City and teaches at the Gallatin School of New York University.
