Sam Wood wrote back to Ohio
urging settlers West,
though he granted
many chicken-hearted pioneers
packed up, headed east again.
Those German settlers
to today’s Georgetown
were too far to return
when they realized
the promoters of their settlement
had both lied about the land
and forgotten all promises of support.
The historical museum ladies
still speak with German accent,
tell how desperate adversity
was accepted, outlived, overcome.
Tough lands and tough people
lack the easy beauty
of more cooperative soils,
more lush landscapes.
But adventuring hearts see space
as a stretching place and brilliant colors
of dust-laden sunsets on wide skies
more stirring than any simple
pretty scene.