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Home  »  Chicago Poems  »  44. Two Neighbors

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Chicago Poems. 1916.

44. Two Neighbors

FACES of two eternities keep looking at me.

One is Omar Khayam and the red stuff wherein men forget yesterday and to-morrow and remember only the voices and songs, the stories, newspapers and fights of today.

One is Louis Cornaro and a slim trick of slow, short meals across slow, short years, letting Death open the door only in slow, short inches.

I have a neighbor who swears by Omar.

I have a neighbor who swears by Cornaro.

Both are happy.

Faces of two eternities keep looking at me.

Let them look.