"America's circus, a spectacle of flying trapeze artists, colorful clowns and trained animal acts under the big top, grew out of the traveling menagerie phenomenon in Somers, New York, in the 1800s. To commemorate this proud local heritage, award-winningpoet and Somers native Jo Pitkin presents a collection of poems inspired by the people, events and fantastic ephemera of the glory days of the Somers showmen. Complementing her dazzling lines are essays by regional historians that explain Somers's uniquerole as the cradle of the American circus"--Publisher's description.