I was looking for the University - poem - Clarence Major Issue

African American Review, Spring, 1994 by Clarence Major

While driving north, lost through Wyoming along a river

on a sun-dappled day alongside looming blue mountains dotted with pine

then through a thousand-acre spread below a retirement village way at the top

past highway - boys vanishing in clouds of dust looking for downstream fun

past hunters in dugout-canoes moving like wildfire on the water

and on I went, still lost, around a gang of Whitman's bare-chested young men

logging timber then I stopped to watch

a mutton-busting ride in a cow-town with banner stretched from bank to barbershop

while a liver of red cattle came through town and went winding up

a narrow road

I asked a cowpoke for directions while he was holding a lamb

between his legs and big shears in one hand

a cigarette, to smoke, in the other, and

out of a face like the centerpiece of a rain forest, he spoke saying

"The uni-what?" I said the university.

He said, "Never heard of it."