Poems (Bradford)/O blue sky of montana

4530651Poems — O blue sky of montanaBernice Margaret Bradford
O BLUE SKY OF MONTANA!
O blue sky of Montana, you are not blue to me,
For I have seen a bluer above a far blue sea,
Where the great waves toss and tumble as they dash upon the shore,
Then wildly scurry backward to break in spray once more,
Where the white gulls scream in chorus
As they dart through the crests of snow,
With the blue sky arching o'er us,
And the blue, blue lake below.

But great state of Montana, I love you just the same:
I love your noble forest touched with the autumn's flame;
I love your mighty rivers that madly rush and foam,
Each swiftly hast'ning downward to its distant ocean home;
I love your snow-clad mountains with peaks that kiss the sky;
Your canyons and your fountains, and the white clouds floating by.

But blue sky of Montana, you are not blue to me,
For I have seen a bluer above an inland sea—
My own dear blue Lake Michigan with white and pebbly shore—
And O, I wish and wish again to see my lake once more.