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Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio

by Carl Sandburg, 1922

It’s a jazz affair, drum crashes and cornet razzes
 The trombone pony neighs and the tuba jackass snorts.
 The banjo tickles and titters too awful.
 The chippies talk about the funnies in the papers.
   The cartoonists weep in their beer.
   Ship riveters talk with their feet
   To the feet of floozies under the tables.
 A quartet of white hopes mourn with interspersed snickers:
     “I got the blues.
     I got the blues.
     I got the blues.”
 And... as we said earlier:
   The cartoonists weep in their beer.

Published in Smoke and Steel
Tags: music

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