American Wild West: Cattle Rustlers Poem by Terence George Craddock (Spectral Images and Images Of Light)

there was a time
in American history
when cattle rustlers
were shot or hung

stealing beef on the hoof
hot irons changing brands
fast rustled up retribution
justice from a rope hung

there was a time
in American history
when cruel range wars
were fought with guns

settlers driven off farmland
starved their crops ruined
their homes stolen burned
cattle grazed homesteaders

land cattle barons prospered
water rights grazing rights
unfenced unowned range land
farmers ranchers fought wars

frontier justice lynchings
local residents fought
gunmen hired bought
no weak law range wars