HANNIBAL
Hannibal, Oh Hannibal
What tales
Thy river shores
Have Churned
Of barefoot days
And genteel ways
And lessons left unlearned
Hannibal, Oh Hannibal
With island woods
So deep
Lovers leap with cliffs
So steep
You'll never grow old
So long as tales
Of Huck and Tom
Are told
Hannibal, Oh Hannibal
We remember still
Your mystery caves
And runaway slaves
Your paddle wheels
And girlish squeals
Mid summer nights
Not so far away
Nor long ago
(The above poem is one of a series of articles
we wrote while taking what became known
to our family in 1977 as our Great Western
Trek, as we travelled from Maryland to Utah.
The poem was written the day before we
entered the town of Hannibal.)