| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922. |
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| II. People Who Must |
| 18. Blue Island Intersection |
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| SIX street ends come together here. | |
| They feed people and wagons into the center. | |
| In and out all day horses with thoughts of nose-bags, | |
| Men with shovels, women with baskets and baby buggies. | |
| Six ends of streets and no sleep for them all day. | 5 |
| The people and wagons come and go, out and in. | |
| Triangles of banks and drug stores watch. | |
| The policemen whistle, the trolley cars bump: | |
| Wheels, wheels, feet, feet, all day. | |
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| In the false dawn when the chickens blink | 10 |
| And the east shakes a lazy baby toe at to-morrow, | |
| And the east fixes a pink half-eye this way, | |
| In the time when only one milk wagon crosses | |
| These three streets, these six street ends, | |
| It is the sleep time and they rest. | 15 |
| The triangle banks and drug stores rest. | |
| The policeman is gone, his star and gun sleep. | |
| The owl car blutters along in a sleep-walk. | |
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