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.”
