Blaze a Steel Trail

©2012, Olan L. Smith

Pounding spikes (foot-by-foot) to favorite refrains,

A rhythm to the madness of pressing onward

Toward an impossible dream of steel rails for trains

Trailing from coast-to-coast uniting a country chartered

From east to west ― far to near where cousins gather cousins.

We settle an untamed frontier to bring respite

To those traveling by foot, horse or wagon across basins,

Prairies and feral mountaintops.  Lay that rail, despite

Sweat rolling from your brow as you teeter

From mountain ridges above tree lines, infertile land

Where nothing grows but rock upon rock, where dynamite bolster

A blazed trail toward conscious ideas; sledge in hand

Over head and down till steel strikes steel,

A calloused hand’s labor is never finished

Advancing into the setting sun it is time to reveal

You ― driver of iron spikes ― our dreams you’ve furnished.