Wanda Sue Parrott believes this poem, which netted her $91,000, is the highest-paying single piece of poetry of any living poet throughout civilization's history, including Shakespeare. It is so controversial the author, unable to get a literary review, threatened to sue city hall in order to gain publicity. She read the poem at literary conventions, in libraries and on street corners.Why? To resolve her 20-year muddle through the muck of urban sewage spills and flooding conditions that destroyed her property, depleted her retirement savings, threatened her life and destroyed lives of helpless plants, insects and wildlife in Springfield, Missouri. The poem airs her case in the Court of Poetic Public Opinion in hopes anyone tempted to fall victim to publicity--that touts Springfield as one of the ten best places in the U.S. to retire--exercises caution before buying property that could cause its owner to go down the drain. This is a public-service pot boiler in which the antagonist is the homesite where Cherokee Indians may have camped during the federally mandated relocation (genocide) of 1838-39, when the Trail of Tears passed through Missouri enroute to the so-called "Nations" in Oklahoma. The appearance of an Unknown Indian poet's spirit, and Wanda Sue's revelation she had a Chickasaw ancestor, make this poetry book a living literary marker along the historic route on which Wanda Sue Parrott is known literally and literarily as "The Last Indian on The Trail of Tears." Her active one-woman stand against city hall, which began in August 2000, ended with acquisition of her house by the City of Springfield on February 2, 2009. SOLD OUTFor excerpts and other details, return to the Home Page and visit the Weeping Waters/Poetry Section of this website. |