Badger Clark's Gay Cowboy Poem "The Lost Pardner"

The Lost Pardner

We loved each other in the way men do
And never spoke about it, Al and me,
But we both knowed, and knowin' it so true
Was more than any woman's kiss could be...

...The range is empty and the trails are blind,
And I don't seem but half myself today.
I wait to hear him ridin' up behind
And feel his knee rub mine the good old way.

-from 'Sun and Saddle Leather,' by Badger Clark

Badger Clark was the first Poet Laureate of South Dakota (in 1937) and was famous for his cowboy poetry.  I found this Library of Congress photo and this poem in this great Huffington Post article, "Gay American History: The Country's Gay Secrets"