Saturday, June 22, 2013

Halsted Street Car



      COME you, cartoonists,
      Hang on a strap with me here
      At seven o’clock in the morning
      On a Halsted street car.
            Take your pencils        
            And draw these faces.
Try with your pencils for these crooked faces,
That pig-sticker in one corner—his mouth—
That overall factory girl—her loose cheeks.
            Find for your pencils        
            A way to mark your memory
            Of tired empty faces.
            After their night’s sleep,
            In the moist dawn
            And cool daybreak,        
              Faces
            Tired of wishes,
            Empty of dreams.

Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems, 1916


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