What Do You Seek?
Jack Davis: Grade 8

What do you seek sir?
What is it you most desire?

Do you wish to hear the hooves of the buffalo
As they tread everything beneath them
With a rush louder than the sound
Of a thousand bullets freed from the bonds of the gun barrel?

Do you wish to see the sun rise
It’s welcome light vanquishing the shadows of the dark
With a stern steady hand
While it tends to life with the gentleness of a mother?

Do you wish to taste the water from a cold mountain stream
As refreshing as lemonade on a hot summer day
And sweeter than the finest cider
As it gurgles and flows, staying forever full?

Do you wish to wipe the sweat from your brow
As you tend to your crops in a field
Losing moisture
But gaining pride, callouses, and honor?

Do you wish to feel the cool smoothness
Of a gold nugget in your hand
Softly cooing to your soul
The promises of prosperity and welfare?

Do you wish to be kissed by the cool mountain air
As you sit under a starry night sky
The moon’s glow softer than a cotton shawl
As it blankets the land in its aura?

What do you seek sir?
What is it you most desire?
Whatever it is
The frontier can provide
For it is also the frontier
To open up, what’s inside

The Misunderstood West
Sulekha Ram-Junnarkar: Grade 8

roaming buffalo
prairies and dusty air
peach trees and skies covered in clouds
a simple idea filled with meaning
the west being a true civilization
but hostility permeates through the land
how can we evict those who are native
but we are merciless because land is gold
everything looks good from the outside
buffalos still roam
the prairies still smell of dusty air
peach trees grow and skies are cloudy
but malevolence is quite clear

Go West
Teddy Brita: Grade 8

Go west, you are seeking the freedom of miles.
Go west, you who are yearning to escape.
Go west, you who are seeking profit and riches.
It is all there for the taking, in that vast openness
that is the west.
An uncharted paradise, waiting only for you.
Beyond the reaches of government,
you can shape yourself however you want.
A regal king of the land, a gallant bandit of the rich, a ruthless businessman who seeks only money.
It is all there, ready for you to grab it by the scruff.

The West
Annie Mulholland: Grade 8

The beauty of the wild frontier
Is what I can’t wait to see

Rolling hills and beautiful creatures
Laid out in front of me

The culture, the sound
That lived in this place

Is now forgotten
Left with no trace

Where is the buffalo
that roamed the land?

Where are the Natives?
Washed away with the sand

Where are the stories?
That no one wrote down

The beauty of the forgotten frontier
Is what I may never see