Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Chicago Poems. 1916.

133. Old Woman

THE OWL-CAR clatters along, dogged by the echo

From building and battered paving-stone.

The headlight scoffs at the mist,

And fixes its yellow rays in the cold slow rain;

Against a pane I press my forehead

And drowsily look on the walls and sidewalks.

The headlight finds the way

And life is gone from the wet and the welter—

Only an old woman, bloated, disheveled and bleared.

Far-wandered waif of other days,

Huddles for sleep in a doorway,

Homeless.