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Manufactured Gods

by Carl Sandburg, 1920

They put up big wooden gods.
 Then they burned the big wooden gods
 And put up brass gods and
 Changing their minds suddenly
 Knocked down the brass gods and put up
 A doughface god with gold earrings.
 The poor mutts, the pathetic slant heads,
 They didn’t know a little tin god
 Is as good as anything in the line of gods
 Nor how a little tin god answers prayer
 And makes rain and brings luck
 The same as a big wooden god or a brass
 God or a doughface god with golden
 Earrings.

Published in Smoke and Steel
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