We played Cowboys and Indians

When I was a child

Fascinated by  stories of a land

Largely undiscovered and wild.

Read comic books of our heroes

Crockett, Jim Bowie, Buffalo Bill,

And more in adventure designed 

To both captivate and thrill.

Watched Roy and Trigger

Hoppy Cassidy, Tom Mix

Silver Screen Heroes

With maybe another five or six.

I discovered Country Music

At a relatively young age
And my love of the Western

Progressed yet another stage.

A love hate relationship

As life and the world moved on:

Faith in the man in the white Hat

Strained, and at times almost gone.

Nearly seventy years later,

Though battered by life,  it seems

I still by and large maintain

Those American Dreams.