| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922. |
| |
| V. Mist Forms |
| 27. How Yesterday Looked |
| |
| THE HIGH horses of the sea broke their white riders | |
| On the walls that held and counted the hours | |
| The wind lasted. | |
| |
| Two landbirds looked on and the north and the east | |
| Looked on and the wind poured cups of foam | 5 |
| And the evening began. | |
| |
| The old men in the shanties looked on and lit their | |
| Pipes and the young men spoke of the girls | |
| For a wild night like this. | |
| |
| The south and the west looked on and the moon came | 10 |
| When the wind went down and the sea was sorry | |
| And the singing slow. | |
| |
| Ask how the sunset looked between the wind going | |
| Down and the moon coming up and I would struggle | |
| To tell the how of it. | 15 |
| |
| I give you fire here, I give you water, I give you | |
| The wind that blew them across and across, | |
| The scooping, mixing wind. | |
|
|
