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Good-night

by Carl Sandburg, 1920

Many ways to spell good night.

 Fireworks at a pier on the Fourth of July spell it with red wheels and yellow spokes.

 They fizz in the air, touch the water and quit.
 Rockets make a trajectory of gold-and-blue and then go out.

 Railroad trains at night spell with a smokestack mushrooming a white pillar.

 Steamboats turn a curve in the Mississippi crying in a baritone that crosses lowland cottonfields to a razorback hill.
 It is easy to spell good night.

         Many ways to spell good night.

Published in Smoke and Steel
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