‘A Ballad of Fortune’: A Poem by Margaret Brinton

.

A Ballad of Fortune

“Be brave now, my darlin’,
We’re migrating West!
Let’s pack up our wagon
And then take a rest.
Tomorrow we’re starting—
At sunrise, is best.”

“But, Jimmy, I’m frightened,”
His young wife, she said.
“The perils are many;
We might end up dead.
I won’t have a kitchen!
I can’t bake our bread.”

“We’ll have an adventure!”
He tried to explain.
“Our horses will lead us
Through snow and the rain.
We’ll reach Sacramento.
There’s gold for the gain!”

Some settlers did find it,
The silver or gold.
But not so young Jimmy;
His prospects grew cold.
Perhaps in Alaska?
He wasn’t that bold!

So, learning his lesson,
That gold was a bust,
He polished his rifles
(Beginning to rust)
And hunted down rabbits.
That surely was just!

The skins of the rabbits,
He tanned in the shade
And sewed into blankets,
His wife to his aid.
And soon, very quickly,
A fortune they made—
Supplying the peddlers
Who dealt in the trade!

.

.

Margaret Brinton has lived in San Diego’s inland valley area for over forty years where she taught and tutored. Her poems have recently been published in California Quarterly and Westward Quarterly and The Lyric with upcoming work in the greeting card industry.