My favorite television cowboy
was the Lone Ranger because he
didn’t sing, he didn’t kill Indians
for the fun of it, and he wasn’t
even a cowboy. He was a hero
with an Indian for a sidekick. His
horse was named Silver. It was
a white horse, which is the best
kind of horse for a hero because
you can always see him coming.
His bullets were made of silver.
They were very expensive. This
meant he couldn’t waste them.
This meant he was a damn good
shot. His black mask was the stark
geometry of anonymity. It was not
there to hide the face of a man, but
to show the face of an idea. It said,
“Justice will be done.” Of course,
I had a Lone Ranger hat and cap
gun and mask, but I wore glasses,
even as a kid, so I tried the mask
with my glasses over it and with
my glasses under it. Both were bad.
But it didn’t matter because my kid
brother refused to be Tonto, and I
refused to be alone. I threw it out
and got a Hopalong Cassidy outfit.
He didn’t have silver bullets. He
didn’t have a mysterious past, but
he did ride a white stallion, “Topper,”
which William Boyd named after his
wife’s favorite books. I liked books.

Nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, twice for the National Book Award and three times for the Pulitzer Prize, J.R. Solonche is the author of more than fifty books of poetry and coauthor of another. He lives in the Hudson Valley.