Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OKLAHOMA, by STELLA B. REDDING



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OKLAHOMA, by                    
First Line: Oklahoma, youngest state of the west
Last Line: Oklahoma.
Subject(s): Greed; Oklahoma; Petroleum; Avarice; Cupidity; Oil


Oklahoma, youngest state of the West,
Arrogant you are,
Billowed on beautiful time-worn ridges
And valleys of fertile green.
You proudly and boastfully laud your own quick growth into wealth.
You show your shining milk teeth to the world,
You bite,
You kill, while guarding your claims.
Your oil fields,
Of a million tanks,
Of unlimited latticed rigging lifted
Vauntingly to the sky,
Proclaim your source of wealth.
Without a "Thank you, God,"
You pump, pump, pump,
And pour out a stream of liquid dollars
From God's storehouse, unwittingly given by indifferent potentates and flung
At the Indian's feet!
Oklahoma! You claim an aristocracy of wealth!
You flaunt it red before uncultured eyes.
How dare you! 'Tis maddeningly multiplied.
The spirit of Christ goes grievingly among your powerful steel machinery of
pipes and bars
That knows no day or hour of rest.
He hears your creed,
That money talks,
Dollars first and then perhaps the soul,
That nothing counts against the clink of the silver wheels.
Ah! money-mad you are!
But, some day
Your uncovered streams
Will cease.
What then?
Oklahoma.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net