| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922. |
| |
| V. Mist Forms |
| 21. Women Washing Their Hair |
| |
| THEY have painted and sung | |
| the women washing their hair, | |
| and the plaits and strands in the sun, | |
| and the golden combs | |
| and the combs of elephant tusks | 5 |
| and the combs of buffalo horn and hoof. | |
| |
| The sun has been good to women, | |
| drying their heads of hair | |
| as they stooped and shook their shoulders | |
| and framed their faces with copper | 10 |
| and framed their eyes with dusk or chestnut. | |
| |
| The rain has been good to women. | |
| If the rain should forget, | |
| if the rain left off for a year— | |
| the heads of women would wither, | 15 |
| the copper, the dusk and chestnuts, go. | |
| |
| They have painted and sung | |
| the women washing their hair— | |
| reckon the sun and rain in, too. | |
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