Missoula

Missoula makes Montana nervous.

the elk hunters are unsure 

of its motives or real dedication.

Folks in Red Lodge and Sydney

don't trust the people or the politics over there

or the proclivities found in that general locale

It's them ones, with their certain "loose and lewdness,"

those shaggy, rowdy kids filling up the town

that foster strong suspicion

They really can't belong to these rugged 

rocks and mines and mountains

nor the smelters, ranches and dusty ravines.

Some try to act scraggly and drive a truck on occasion

or even own a gun for varmints and such 

but tolerance is only barely possible.

If they'd float on downstream

towards Idaho or somewhere else

next week or tomorrow,
everybody would be much obliged.