Hunger

Life was better in Cali
opportunity awaits those
who crossed the Sierras.
Come on now, who
didn’t want the golden life?

But shortcuts had no business
on prairie highways and byways
where oxen roamed and children
caught butterflies while camp
was being set up

Take the short cut. Majority rules.

No one expected the snow.
The apocalypse snow. The reaper’s
snow. The forever wind and the
forever snow.

For solitude and starvation
gaunt dogs and oxen and
their bones only lasted so long.

Rescue was a fairy tale.

What were we being punished for?
What had we done?
And they were so hungry.
There were no shortcuts for starvation.

Spring brought rescue and shame-
What we have done
we had no choice.

Please, forgive us.
We’ve paid for our sins
in the forever snow,
in the reaper’s snow,
in the dying snow
stained red.

***

This is the poem for day 20 of NaPoWriMo. The prompt was to write a poem retelling a historical event.

In case you didn’t figure it which even I chose, it was the Donner party. A couple of months ago I read Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party by George Stewart, and it was interesting. I learned what really happened because interviewed survivors and read first-hand accounts. Some of the information was still in my head because he was a good storyteller.

Check out the prompt and more poems here.