Charlie's Dream
They ventured from the east with wishes dreams and hopes,
trekking through the deserts and cross the mountain slopes;
two weeks out already and five more weeks to go,
heading for the west where the milk and honey flow.
In wagon three was Charlie with his wife and family.
He was going west to claim his destiny.
All his life he'd struggled he was no man of means,
but Charlie was a good man and his dreams were simple dreams.
The wagon train was winding toward the promised land.
Wooden wheels were turning, burning deep tracks in the sand.
Sixty wagons long with just one goal in mind.
Sixty wagons strong to cross the California line.
Charlie's wife Gisele was the kind a poor man needs
to help him build a home and help him plant new seeds.
Charlie's three young sons would help him farm the land
and Charlie's girl Roxanne would take a cowboy's hand.
About the fourth week out the Indians attacked;
bullets from the front and arrows from the back.
The train had formed a circle with wagons overturned,
some hit by flaming arrows, choking as they burned.
The wagon train had stumbled in this strange wild land.
Wooden wheels stopped turning, dug into the sand:
Sixty wagons strong with rifle & gun.
Sixty wagons long with fear in everyone.
It took less than an hour until the last man fell.
They killed his wife Gisele in Charlie's private hell.
Roxanne was dragged away in the middle of a scream.
The Indians and arrows murdered Charlie's dream.
The wagon train was cursed and never saw the promised land.
Her wooden wheels stopped turning; no tracks left in the sand.
Sixty wagons long; no trace left where they'd been.
Sixty wagons gone; and dead was Charlie's dream.