LEWIS & CLARK, 1805-1806
From the border of Idaho and Montana
no one heard from them.
They disappeared
into wildness only Indians knew.
Just in case
the expedition failed
Lewis & Clark sent back
a keelboat
filled with letters, reports to President Jefferson
and treasures:
four magpies and a prairie dog.
Safe in the hands of their least capable co-
workers, the craft traveled all the long way
down the Missouri River
while the duo journeyed on to the Pacific.
When they reached St. Louis a year later
the crowds gasped. They were not dead,
only forgotten. Jefferson welcomed them home —
“the length of time without hearing of you
had begun to be felt awfully.”
Not dead. *Only* forgotten. I’m not sure which is worse.
Megan,
Thank you for catching Mr. Jefferson’s delightful yet eloquent phrasing. (So does this mean the keelboat with the scalawags and personal treasures did not, in fact, make it back to St. Louis?
Love, Dad
It did make it, but a year before Lewis & Clark did. Everyone had given up on them. Here’s where I got my info: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2013/09/23
to imagine… going into
this place
of wild sweet wild erness
for one year
though there were already people
and creatures in
this place
of home sweet home erness
Nice, Nance.