Cool Office Promise
Cool Office Promise
A Cowboy Poem by Alan Nafzger
A promise made in air conditioning goes down real smooth,
everything sounds reasonable inside a climate-controlled groove.
The handshake feels like honor and the words feel like they’ll hold,
but promises need witnesses and heat to see if they’ll go cold.
Take that same man out to the field in July at two o’clock,
sweat on every syllable, sun beating on the clock,
and ask him to deliver what he promised in the cool —
you’ll find out fast if you were dealing with a man or just a fool.
The hot field is the test that the cool office never is,
when comfort’s gone the character is either yours or his.
A promise made where nobody suffers costs the man nothing at all —
a promise kept in August heat is the only kind that’ll stand the fall.
Get your deals done in the dirt where the conditions tell the truth,
where the sun makes liars obvious and burns away the proof
of anything that wasn’t solid when the comfort went away —
in a hot field with nobody watching is where real promises stay.
A promise made in a cool office don’t last long in a hot field… especially if nobody’s watchin’ but the guy gettin’ lied to.
I’m Alan Nafzger. Appreciate ya!
Last Updated on April 11, 2026 by Alan Nafzger