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Bas-Relief

by Carl Sandburg, 1920

Five geese deploy mysteriously.
 Onward proudly with flagstaffs,
 Hearses with silver bugles,
 Bushels of plum-blossoms dropping
 For ten mystic web-feet—
 Each his own drum-major,
 Each charged with the honor
 Of the ancient goose nation,
 Each with a nose-length surpassing
 The nose-lengths of rival nations.
 Somberly, slowly, unimpeachably,
 Five geese deploy mysteriously.

Published in Smoke and Steel
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