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Home  »  Smoke and Steel  »  27. Man, the Man-Hunter

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

II. People Who Must

27. Man, the Man-Hunter

I SAW Man, the man-hunter,

Hunting with a torch in one hand

And a kerosene can in the other,

Hunting with guns, ropes, shackles.

I listened

And the high cry rang,

The high cry of Man, the man-hunter:

We’ll get you yet, you sbxyzch!

I listened later.

The high cry rang:

Kill him! kill him! the sbxyzch!

In the morning the sun saw

Two butts of something, a smoking rump,

And a warning in charred wood:

Well, we got him,

the sbxyzch.