23. Neighbors. II. People Who Must. Sandburg, Carl. 1920. Smoke and Steel

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

II. People Who Must

23. Neighbors

ON Forty First Street
near Eighth Avenue
a frame house wobbles.

If houses went on crutches
this house would be	5
one of the cripples.

A sign on the house:
Church of the Living God
And Rescue Home for Orphan Children.

From a Greek coffee house	10
Across the street
A cabalistic jargon
Jabbers back.
And men at tables
Spill Peloponnesian syllables	15
And speak of shovels for street work.
And the new embankments of the Erie Railroad
At Painted Post, Horse’s Head, Salamanca.