TO THE WEST

by Gay Reiser Cannon
(Texas)

To the West was freedom he told her.
To the West was food.
To the West the Church didn't tie you
to an order so cruel.
To the West was the Ocean,
then a land past the sea.
To the West past the land
was the prairie where he
meant to take me.
To the West was a funeral,
we buried him at sea.
But to the West we continued
my daughters and me.
To the West to Missouri
for work and supplies and
then with the others we pulled
close to the line. To the West
the mules pulled us in our
wagon so fine. To the West
was the land that was free
and before the gunshot we'd pull sooner
So SOONERs we'd be.
To the West of the world,
with the Green in our eyes,
we'd wrench a new paradise
with our work and our minds.

(For my grandmother's grandmother
Granny Donnell
who opened up the Oklahoma Territory)