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People Who Must

by Carl Sandburg, 1920

I painted on the roof of a skyscraper.
 I painted a long while and called it a day’s work.
 The people on a corner swarmed and the traffic cop’s whistle never let up all afternoon.
 They were the same as bugs, many bugs on their way—
 Those people on the go or at a standstill;
 And the traffic cop a spot of blue, a splinter of brass,
 Where the black tides ran around him
 And he kept the street. I painted a long while
 And called it a day’s work.

Published in Smoke and Steel
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