Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922.
VI. Accomplished Facts1. Accomplished Facts
E
the first arbutus bud in her garden.
remembered a friend with the gift of George
Washington’s pocket spy-glass.
watch taken from the bedroom of Frederick the Great,
and passed along this trophy to a particular friend.
and handed it to a country girl starting work in a
bean bazaar, and scribbled: “Peach blossoms may or
may not stay pink in city dust.”
So it goes. Some things we buy, some not.
Tom Jefferson was proud of his radishes, and Abe
Lincoln blacked his own boots, and Bismarck called
Berlin a wilderness of brick and newspapers.
Ride, ride, ride on in the great new blimps—
Cross unheard-of oceans, circle the planet.
When you come back we may sit by five hollyhocks.
We might listen to boys fighting for marbles.
The grasshopper will look good to us.