(YOUTH)

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp,
born in March of forty-eight,
it was in the eighteen hundreds,
and his legend would be great

When he was still a youngster
his folks left Illinois
with Virgil, Warren, and Morgan,
they took all of their boys

The family settled in Iowa
where his father ran a store,
and stayed for just a few years
before he dreamt of more

They finally moved to Colton,
California promised best
to farm vast acres of rich soil,
his parents favored the west

Wyatt grew into a cowboy
and hunted great buffalo,
he sometimes drove a stage coach
and drifted where wild winds blow

He fell in love with a maiden
who took the fancy of men,
but her heart was true to Wyatt
and a new life they’d begin

She died soon after marriage,
Cholera took the poor soul,
he sadly grieved o’re her body,
then set out to reach a new goal

(U.S. MARSHAL)

Wyatt was deputy marshal
in cities of Kansas, you know,
in Wichita and Dodge City
his reputation would grow

He headed south to Tombstone
and continued with the law,
he bought a gambling concession
in the first saloon he saw

Gambling Lawman, they called him,
his games in bars were well known,
he ruled both jobs with an iron fist,
and tolerance was never shown

He married again on the rebound,
this marriage was not meant to last,
they both agreed it was over
and put their mistake in the past

Earp tried to settle old Tombstone,
he came there thinking he would,
but the Clantons hated all lawmen,
planned to kill him if they could

His brothers had moved there also,
they all were family men,
Doc Holliday followed soon after,
they thought of him as kin

He met his third wife named Josie,
when she came to sing on the stage,
she promised to stay forever
and live among sand and sage

The Clantons kept up their torment,
Wyatt had no time to waste
for they threatened to kill the Earp boys
or drive them all from their place

Earp knew it had to be settled
with Ike’s boys once and for all
so he gathered Doc and his brothers
for a showdown they would call

At the OK Corral they agreed
both sides would fin’lly meet,
three Clantons died quick and ready,
and their blood ran thick in the street

Others escaped on horseback
but Wyatt soon tracked them down,
Doc and Warren weren’t injured,
and rode swiftly with him from town

But the trouble didn’t end there,
Morgan was ambushed and shot,
it seems four men looked for trouble,
and trouble is just what they got

Earp then rode out with a posse
and killed every man for revenge,
the story was told of no mercy,
it made the town folk almost cringe

They put out a warrant for murder
on the man they’d considered the law,
so Wyatt and Josie skedaddled
to new places they’d never saw

(LATER YEARS)

San Diego is where they arrived first,
in the eighties they bought lots of land,
Earp too refereed prizefighters,
he went into the ring on demand

Wyatt soon bought a great pony,
Otto Rex, the young trotter’s name,
he traveled the racing circuit,
and made money playing this game

Alaska then called in the nineties,
to Nome Wyatt and Josie would move,
it was at the height of the Gold Rush
and his skill at mining he’d prove

Saloons and prospecting he mastered
and soon was Nevada bound
where he would accumulate silver,
and dig more gold from the ground

He put roots down in the desert,
California Mojave, I mean,
where several more holes were dug
and from them great riches he’d glean
 
(HIS DEATH)

Wyatt lived on to be eighty,
dying in twenty-nine,
two centuries he had traversed,
and was truly a man of his time

The miracle when all is counted,
not a scratch did Wyatt receive,
and Josie felt more than just lucky
for the man she chose not to grieve

She outlived him many a long year,
in fact it was almost fifteen,
they’d shared so many adventures,
and he never once treated her mean

Wyatt marshaled the law in places,
in others he raised quite a fuss,
but we should be grateful he passed thru’
and helped settle the wild west for us…

Tamara Hillman

©2005