My Billion Acres

 

I have a billion acres

And not a field to fence,

I pay no taxes on them

And they bear me no expense.

 

Many millions share them

But still my title's good;

No man can take them from me

But all can use, who would.

 

They bring me profits greatest

When their wonders I can share,

They need no cultivation

And I can't improve their care.

 

All they ask is contemplation

Profound and reverent,

For my starry billion acres

Are in the firmament.

 

W.C. (Bud) Shewmon

Moberly, Missouri 1963