Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

112. Pals

TAKE a hold now

On the silver handles here,

Six silver handles,

One for each of his old pals.

Take hold

And lift him down the stairs,

Put him on the rollers

Over the floor of the hearse.

Take him on the last haul,

To the cold straight house,

The level even house,

To the last house of all.

The dead say nothing

And the dead know much

And the dead hold under their tongues

A locked-up story.