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Mask

by Carl Sandburg, 1916

Fling your red scarf faster and faster, dancer.
 It is summer and the sun loves a million green leaves, masses of green.
 Your red scarf flashes across them calling and a-calling.
 The silk and flare of it is a great soprano leading a chorus
 Carried along in a rouse of voices reaching for the heart of the world.
 Your toes are singing to meet the song of your arms:

 Let the red scarf go swifter.
 Summer and the sun command you.

Published in Chicago Poems
Published in Smoke and Steel
Tags: carpe diem, summer

Any corrections or public domain poems I should have here? Email me at poems (at) this domain.