“I hate the thought, but I suppose
That desperado, Rusty Rose,
he scratched his horse’s ear.
He said, “I see you curl your nose
whenever I am near.
it’s got to be this way
So up ahead, I’ll shed these clothes
and take a bath today.”
They came upon a riverbed
beside a ragged tree,
and Rusty said, “Now bow your head
and say a prayer for me.”
He grabbed a crusty bar of soap
and stripped down to the skin.
And then without a shred of hope,
poor Rusty stumbled in.
A bullfrog fled without a trace,
a fish came up for air,
as Rusty washed his hands and face,
his legs and feet and hair.
He dried off with a gunnysack
and hung it in the tree.
He climbed aboard his horse’s back,
his hat upon his knee.
“We’ll leave the soap besi
when we come back next year.de the path,”
said Rusty with a sneer.
“I might just need another bath”
by Eric Ode