Bonus Poem: Remembering the Alamo

(For the lectionary poem for March 8, please page down to the previous post!)

Remembering the Alamo, March 6

In December, eighteen thirty-five,
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous month and year
When in old San Antonio
The capture of the Alamo 
Was made by Texians with a cheer;
In two month's time, Jim Bowie came,
And with Bill Travis, 'twas their aim
To hold the fort through think and thin,
Though Houston, newly in command
Of Texas forces, thought a stand 
With too few troops would do them in.

And yet, the fort's defenders stayed;
Though few in numbers, not dismayed,
They readied for a new attack.
By February twenty-third,
The charging Santa Anna heard
His forces' gunfire given back;
Some eighteen hundred Mexicans
(Some say, six thousand fighting men)
Assailed the Alamo's small band;
For thirteen days the battle raged,
While those inside, a fight they waged
For lives of freedom and their land.

So thus they lived, and there they died,
A scant two hundred men defied
The odds; and freely stood their ground;
Among them, one more famous came,
A Congressman of frontier's fame,
Thus Davy Crockett's name resounds. 
By March the 6th, the wall was breached,
And Santa Anna sought to teach
Young Texas its revolt, it end - 
No prisoners that day did he take; 
His point to Texas thus to make -
Yet vict'ry would defeat portend.  

March 6 became the famous day
"Remember the Alamo" they'd say;
In six more weeks, the tide had turned.
At San Jacinto, Houston's troops
With Alamo-remembered whoops,
O'er Santa Anna, vict'ry earned;
Thus, independence was secured,
While famous words were then ensured
To make us feel right and proud.
Yet death, for Crockett and the rest,
Calls not for whoops, but to resist
Wherever calls for war are loud.

Scott L. Barton