Florid arrest

With a whip-cracking tempo,

he drove de Leon's cattle.

Born of penniless yeomen,

he sought de Soto's fortune.

Emerging from Georgia pines,

he reveled in the expanse of La Chua's plains.

Wind breathed life into his soul,

Alligator, Bear, and Panther their blessings they bestowed.

The vaquero and his herd southward they go,

guided by Wind to a grove.

Where bountiful citrus is nascent,

nourished by Wind's gift of rain,

and sky-scraping Magnolia's shade.

Stalked by wolves and plagued by pests,

the baron fought for the land

with the fury that Osceola once did.

Foes fended off and kept at bay,

accrued grit set his drive ablaze.

To maifest destiny

by taming the eternal range.

Onwards he went

until the Pay-hay-okee he met.

The vast river of grass

put his march to an end.

Determined to progress,

the developer dug and dammed,

drained and cleared the land.

de Leon's herd was fenced in,

no longer wild to roam the plains.

The grove took over the scrub and hammock,

and sky-scraping Magnolias were replaced

by sky-scraping steel and concrete plates.

Wind was nowhere to be found.

Alligator, Bear and Panther died out.

The mogul smothered the land with urban sprawl.

No frontier to conquer was left,

and no heap of gold or palaces

were enough to keep him contempt.

Trapped in his synthetic world,

doomed by original sin,

instead of de Soto's fortune,

the forlorn got Midas's curse.