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13 April 2010

An Historical Texas Two Step By Johnny Baker Jr.

An Historical Texas Two Step

by

Johnny Baker Jr.

In all the experience I’ve gained to this date,

I have the proud and bless’d assurance of being from the state

Which has been owned throughout its history by Mexico, France, and Spain.

The 3 flags bringing the total to 6 can easily be named.

180 or 90 brave and strong took on Santa Anna at the Alamo,

But we became a sovereign nation with victory at San Jacinto.

A true blue, Lone Star Texas will tell anyone, with pride,

Texas annexed the United States, December 1845.

In a little less than another generation,

Texas joined 10 other states to form a Confederate nation.

There are few fond recollections from those years of history,

Led by President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Robert E. Lee.

The Age of the Outlaw rose from Reconstruction days,

And many came from Texas to live that evil way.

There came John Wesley Hardin, and a fellow named Sam Bass,

Who both met assassins’ bullets which would lay them under grass.

In the years since the reunion of the States with Texas soil,

We Texans found new sources of pride—in ranches and in oil.

Texas has become a legend, and it will live on without us,

Through Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove and a TV show called Dallas.

The Blue Bonnets ‘long the interstates will live after we’re all dead,

When generation yet unborne will crave a Bowl of Red.

Lay me to rest in side oats gramma, ‘neath a nest of mockingbirds.

Teach them the verses to Texas, Our Texas—and not another word!

Copyright 1995 BY John T. Baker Jr.

4 comments:

  1. Side Oats Gramma is my second favorite native grass.

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  2. By, the way, "discombobulated but copacetic" is Maria Solana (in case you were wondering).

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  3. I wondered if "discombobulated" was Maria Solana! Who else would focus on the mention of side oats in a poem about Texas history? LOL

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