Lucius Harwood Foote. El Vaquero. Augustin S. Macdonald, comp. 1914. A Collection of Verse by California Poets

Augustin S. Macdonald, comp. A Collection of Verse by California Poets. 1914.

El Vaquero

By Lucius Harwood Foote


TINGED with the blood of Aztec lands,
Sphinx-like, the tawny herdsman stands,
A coiled reata in his hands.
Devoid of hope, devoid of fear,
Half brigand, and half cavalier,—	5
This helot, with imperial grace,
Wears ever on his tawny face
A sad, defiant look of pain.
Left by the fierce iconoclast
A living fragment of the past,—	10
Greek of the Greeks he must remain.