From the inimitable Campbell McGrath comes an epic poem of george shannon, the youngest member of the lewis and clark expedition, who wandered the prairie alone for sixteen days.
The last of the Maha will fade from the earth Vanquished utterly by the Pawnee & after the Pawnee the Sioux may perish & eventually the Kentuckians and Ohioans &c—I doubt not but my countrymen Will populate in numbers these fulsome plains But what untold count Of years & men, of decades & centuries What numberless generations will it require Life by life & skeleton by skeleton To claim this land from the buffalo?
With Shannon, a testament to both natural splendor and human courage, Campbell McGrath has created a thrilling narrative that rises from those vast, lonely spaces that continue to haunt the American consciousness.