Progress
Concrete covers the old wagon yard
Time has torn the old pens down
Progress, or so it's called
Shrouds sacred, hallowed ground
The sound of steel-shod horses hooves
Now fail to greet the dawn
Melodic ring of spur rowel
On the boardwalk now is gone
Gone but not forgotten
Those old cowboys from the past
Whose works and deeds, like a giant oak
Have cast a shadow vast
Time has honored their traditions
History tells us where they've been
Their course forever blazoned
Though the trails have since blowed in
For them, progress swarmed like locust
On howling winds of change
Reminiscent of another time
When barbed wire carved the range
The constant bawl of cattle
Of longhorn herds of old
Is silenced now by progress
Or so the story's told
Time was when grass abundant
Covered every hill and plain
Progress plowed it under
Built avenue and lane
Scattered few remember
'Cept through written verse and song
Those valiant men whose spirits yet
Ride wild and free and strong
Their spirits ride in harmony
In the souls of horseback men
Who daily fight the battle
That progress strives to win
Though their forms are in the present
Their hearts are with the dawn
'Fore progress took the rangeland
So the war still rages on
Progress marched in sometimes blind
And would only a deaf ear lend
And staked claim to the sad beginning
Of the cowboy's mournful end
Still, the end, defines finality
Or existence nevermore
Progress may have won the battle
It shall not win the war
© 2005, Jay Snider
These words may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.