Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TORREON, by CHARLES GRANVILLE HAMILTON


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TORREON, by                    
First Line: Villa fought the battle of torreon
Last Line: And the walls came tumbling down.
Subject(s): Villa, Francisco (pancho) (1878-1923)


Villa fought the battle of Torreon,
Torreon, Torreon,
Villa fought the battle of Torreon,
Villa fought the battle of Torreon,
And the walls came tumbling down.

The peon awakens with hope for Madero
After thirty years of Diaz purgatory,
Instead he gets only the haughty Huerta.
The cowboys of Zapata surge over the haciendas
And the rumbling guns of Obregon roar in revolt.

Chihuahua is scarcely a Sherwood forest
And Villa scarcely an Anglo-Saxon
As he laughs at the rules of war Tasker Bliss sends him --
Do yankees imagine that war is another game?
Betrayed, Villa shoots over the border
And Pershing plays hide and seek in the Mexican mountains
While at Parral a few negroes -- as usual -- are killed.

Dictators and Progress and Revolution Triumphant
While Calles lined his pocket with profitable socialism
And real revolution lingers over champagne.
Gold shirts saunter the streets with old millionaire's money
And pledge anew devotion to the Mother of Christ and to Rockefeller.
But all of their horses and all of their men
Can never bring old Mexico back again.
Castilian conquest forever was gone
When Villa fought the battle of Torreon,
Torreon, Torreon,
Villa fought the battle of Torreon,
And the walls came tumbling down.





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