The Cattle Don’t Wait

The Cattle Don’t Wait

A Cowboy Poem by Alan Nafzger

You can wait for the perfect morning, wait for the perfect light,
wait for the stars to line up and the market to get right.
But the cattle don’t consult your plans before they start to low,
and hunger don’t respect a man who’s waitin’ for the show.

I’ve seen men paralyzed by choices like a deer caught in beams,
while the hay got wet and the herd got thin on nothing but their dreams.
The perfect moment’s a con job sold by men who never worked a spread —
out here the moment’s always now, or the moment’s good and dead.

Your life don’t feed itself the way the cattle never do,
it stands there in the cold and waits to see what you’ll go through.
Either you show up with the feed or everything grows lean —
the perfect moment don’t exist between the real and the in-between.

So move — imperfect, early, wrong, but moving all the same,
a crooked start beats standing still while waiting for the flame.
The cattle will be fed by the man who goes on out the door,
not the one who’s still inside deciding what he’s waiting for.

You can wait for the perfect moment all you want, but out here the cattle don’t feed themselves… and neither does your life.

I’m Alan Nafzger. Appreciate ya!

Last Updated on April 11, 2026 by Alan Nafzger