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How Yesterday Looked

by Carl Sandburg, 1920

The high horses of the sea broke their white riders
 On the walls that held and counted the hours
 The wind lasted.

 Two landbirds looked on and the north and the east
 Looked on and the wind poured cups of foam
 And the evening began.

 The old men in the shanties looked on and lit their
 Pipes and the young men spoke of the girls
 For a wild night like this.

 The south and the west looked on and the moon came
 When the wind went down and the sea was sorry
 And the singing slow.

 Ask how the sunset looked between the wind going
 Down and the moon coming up and I would struggle
 To tell the how of it.

 I give you fire here, I give you water, I give you
 The wind that blew them across and across,
 The scooping, mixing wind.

Published in Smoke and Steel
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