This Kansas Land - A poem by W. B. Mellenbruch

This Kansas Land.

The poets praise this Kansas land,
And send abroad its fame;
With flowery words at their command
They still repeat the same.

Its blackness they would have you know
Is just the proper thing;
While of the corn that it will grow
They ne'er do cease to sing.

Its fields so black in early spring,
By summer's warmth turn green,
And soon the ears are goldening^__
All this have poets seen.

At this their hearts so over full,
Burst forth in Poet's lays;
And it is almost wonderful
How they this land will praise.

While what they say on truth may stand,
I'd like to ask you first.
Is not the mud from Kansas land,
Of all, by far the worst?

In rain or storm, this Kansas land
Sticks closer than a brother^__
All o'er your clothes, your shoes, your hands,
To aggravate your mother.

^__W. B. Mellenbruch.

Poets and Poetry of Kansas
Edited by Thomas W. Herringshaw
(Chicago: American Publishers' Association. 1894)
Page 285