Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922.
V. Mist Forms21. Women Washing Their Hair
T
the women washing their hair,
and the plaits and strands in the sun,
and the golden combs
and the combs of elephant tusks
and the combs of buffalo horn and hoof.
drying their heads of hair
as they stooped and shook their shoulders
and framed their faces with copper
and framed their eyes with dusk or chestnut.
If the rain should forget,
if the rain left off for a year—
the heads of women would wither,
the copper, the dusk and chestnuts, go.
the women washing their hair—
reckon the sun and rain in, too.