I hadn't thought of this as poem addressed by a mother to her son, either, until it was suggested here. I too thought of it as a poem addressed to a woman's spouse, lover or adult male friend or relative. But the mother/son reading is plausible now that I think about it. The title: Visiting the Real Ranch sounds like something a parent would say to a child. We're going to visit the REAL ranch, as opposed to the dude ranch or the petting zoo. Also the expression of "my wish for you," seems paternal or maternal. A lover, one might expect, would express a wish "for us."

Now that I've considered it, I'm not sure the other reading adds or detracts. Sorry to say that I find reading poetry an awful lot of work for a very occasional reward. I'm sure part of it is my simple mindedness, but so many poems are like the films of David Lynch; enigmatic to the point of being useless. I will remember Mulholland Drive, for example, but I took nothing away from it. I have found gems within the hundreds of pages of Wallace Stevens, but I'm not even sure how to read most of the rest of it.

I'm not saying it has to make sense to be good. I like the songs of Beck, after all. But if it can't make sense I at least want it to make me feel something. This poem does neither. The William Stafford poem MaryAnn posted does both.