dots-menu
×

Home  »  Smoke and Steel  »  14. Bas-Relief

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922.

IV. Playthings of the Wind

14. Bas-Relief

FIVE geese deploy mysteriously.

Onward proudly with flagstaffs,

Hearses with silver bugles,

Bushels of plum-blossoms dropping

For ten mystic web-feet—

Each his own drum-major,

Each charged with the honor

Of the ancient goose nation,

Each with a nose-length surpassing

The nose-lengths of rival nations.

Somberly, slowly, unimpeachably,

Five geese deploy mysteriously.