The Brothers Culver Poem by David Welch

Fielding Culver stepped off the west-bound train,
and gazed up on the towering Front Range,
it was a cool morn, eighteen sixty-nine,
he'd been sent out west, his brother to find.

He set up in a hotel in Green Springs,
put away all his travel gear and things,
then went down to a saloon to ask around,
his brother Ethan was well known, he found.

A rancher by the name of Spencer Glynn
said he'd seen Ethan up in the peaks hunting,
gave Fielding directions to his last place,
fFelding thanked the man and set on his way.

He followed a small, rock-choked canyon stream,
the walls and scraggle-pines right out of a dream,
at the end rose up a tall, foreboding peak,
the was the one of which Spencer did speak.

He rode up through thin forest and parkland,
about half way up vast mountain meadow spanned,
carefully he picked his way through large stone,
up here he wasn't that sure which way to go.

A rifle shot then rang out from the west,
he turned his horse that way, and his heals pressed.
As he went a herd of elk came scrambling,
Fielding turned away, and watched them passing.

Continuing on his way he soon found
a dead elk lying flat on rocky ground,
besides him, at work with the butchering,
Fielding saw his brother, dressed in buckskins.

Ethan glanced up, gawked at him in surprise,
Fielding had never before seen wider eyes,
said Ethan, "Of all things I thought I'd see,
I did not expect you looking down on me! "

Fielding said simply, "I need to talk to you."
said Ethan, "Get down first, we've got work to do."
As Fielding climber down to the still-warm kill,
Ethan said, "Go on then, say our father's fill."

Fielding frowned. "He sent me to bring you home.
Age is catching up, he can't do it on is own.
He has a job waiting for when you come,
he's leaving the whole bank to his three sons."

Said Ethan, "Henry can run dad's concerns,
there is no real need for me to return,
Besides, old Chicago smells rather rank,
and I'd go mad working inside a bank."

With that Ethan spoke of the issue no more,
regardless of how much Fielding implored,
until he said, "Is this to be our end?
This wayward path you'll continue to wend? "

Ethan smiled, "No, we have much to do.
We have to move this elk, there's plenty for two!
Between our horses we'll carry much meat,
let me get my roan, and a path we'll beat."

And so the two rode back down through the woods,
out of the canyon, to rangeland quite good,
to a cabin built by the Rockies edge,
where Ethan prepared his brother a bed.

Later Ethan roasted a great haunch,
enough for their breakfast, dinner, and lunch.
They sat outside by the great fire's glow,
while a red sunset over sharp peaks roamed.

Ethan watched his brother gaze to the ridge,
said, "You know, there's nothing wrong with it."
Fielding turned, said, "Whatever do you mean?
Said Ethan, "Wanting to live where you can breathe.

"I knew way back when I was just thirteen,
that father's world would never be my scene.
I've seen many men gaze like you are now,
but few ever dare to let themselves set out

"to follow their gut wherever it may go,
to live out a life they so wish to know.
They gaze, and dream, then head back for the east,
to lives they're given, not lives that are free."

Fielding frowned at his brothers explanation.
"We all must bear out some expectations."
Ethan said, "Yes, but if you go back home,
will they be father's, or will they we your own? "

Said Fielding, "It is not as simple as that.
Besides, banking is all I'm really good at."
Ethan just smiled, said, "Here is the thing.
No one has opened a bank down in Green Springs."

Fielding said, "There is more, things have been planned.
What would they all say about me as a man
if I ran out on mother, her hair gray,
if I just stopped courting Ada Tremaine? "

Said Ethan"Ada, daughter of dad's partner?
So they've decided that you are to may her?
And as for mother, I write her every week.
A dozen times I've asked her to visit me

"to see the wilds, the peaks from this cabin,
making a move doesn't mean shedding of kin.
She'd come to visit, if not for father's views,
Is that fear also gonna' be your excuse? "

Fielding just sighed, "I cannot have your life."
Ethan replied, "I just offer the knife
by which you can cut all those self-made bonds
you've worn so long, you forget that they're on."

They said nothing more, and the very next day
Fielding went to the station to get a stage,
But as the horses pulled up he looked around.
It was true, their was not a bank in town…

Several weeks later, when he didn't return,
His dad got a letter, which he then burned.
But in Colorado, Fielding gave thanks
to the opening of the new Green Springs branch.

To the influx of ranchers he gave loans,
soon his own house on a spread he owned,
married a bar maid he could barley handle,
back home the news was quite the scandal.

Fielding did well, and finally understood
his brother better than father ever could,
and despite his success, for two days each week,
he and Ethan hunted elk high in the peaks.