Train and Tumbleweed

An Ode to the Southwest

 

Never did I think I’d see,

Such a plethora of tumbleweed.

By north or south or west or east,

Far and wide lies the hearty beast.

Tumbleweeds cover the desert land,

So many so, they’re out of hand.

 

For hundreds of miles and days without end,

The tumbleweed seemed my only friend.

Laying low along the sandy flats,

My abundant friend holds mighty fast.

By blasting winds and extreme high heat,

Nor shifting sands can it be beat.

 

With one exception is it held at bay,

Great steel and iron lead the way,

As obliviously through my prickly friend,

Miles of train tracks do wend.

For as many a tumbleweed,

A freight train car I did see,

Snaking through the desert flats,

On the many winding railroad tracks.

Full of cargo for every need,

The cars chug through at slow speed.

Horns blowing come day or night,

At first a nuisance to my plight.

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Owning the desert as if time stands still,

The train and tumbleweed forever will.

Whistles unchanged since times Old West,

It’s the railroad train I like the best,

Of the ubiquitous residents of the southwest.