People always say Oklahoma has no beaches or mountains, <br />So there's nothing to do here. <br />But they don't tell you about how here in Oklahoma, <br />We got some things they don't have other places: <br />We don't have beaches; but we have acres and oceans of caring. <br />We don't have too many mountains; <br />But we have plains and pinnacles, of human kindness. <br />We have salt of the earth people, with red clay fired veins; <br />Bedrock people, who won't move; <br />Who will never shift a centimeter, even though the earth <br />Move all the seismographs clear off their baseplates; <br />People who will show up with trucks and ropes, <br />Without being asked, after a tornado blows your barn over, <br />And people who show up with water for your cows, <br />When it's a hundred and five, and you're in the surgery, <br />Wondering if you'll still be around <br />To take care of those cows, in a week or a month. <br />People who let you be yourself, because being true to themselves <br />Is the only way they have ever known how to be. <br />People who don't stand on formality, or far removed courtesies. <br />I wouldn't trade all the beaches or mountains in California; <br />All the skiing and surfing, for even one square mile of Oklahoma; <br />It's the only true bargain I've ever really gotten out of life.<br /><br />Patti Masterman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/why-i-love-oklahoma/
