Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Cornhuskers. 1918.

52. Slants at Buffalo, New York

A FOREFINGER of stone, dreamed by a sculptor, points to the sky.

It says: This way! this way!

Four lions snore in stone at the corner of the shaft.

They too are the dream of a sculptor.

They too say: This way! this way!

The street cars swing at a curve.

The middle-class passengers witness low life.

The car windows frame low life all day in pictures.

Two Italian cellar delicatessens

sell red and green peppers.

The Florida bananas furnish a burst of yellow.

The lettuce and the cabbage give a green.

Boys play marbles in the cinders.

The boys’ hands need washing.

The boys are glad; they fight among each other.

A plank bridge leaps the Lehigh Valley railroad.

Then acres of steel rails, freight cars, smoke,

And then … the blue lake shore

…Erie with Norse blue eyes … and the white sun.