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Testimony Regarding a Ghost

by Carl Sandburg, 1920

The roses slanted crimson sobs
 On the night sky hair of the women,
 And the long light-fingered men
 Spoke to the dark-haired women,
 “Nothing lovelier, nothing lovelier.”
 How could he sit there among us all
 Guzzling blood into his guts,
 Goblets, mugs, buckets—
 Leaning, toppling, laughing
 With a slobber on his mouth,
 A smear of red on his strong raw lips,
 How could he sit there
 And only two or three of us see him?
   There was nothing to it.
 He wasn’t there at all, of course.

   The roses leaned from the pots.
 The sprays snot roses gold and red
 And the roses slanted crimson sobs
   In the night sky hair
 And the voices chattered on the way
 To the frappe, speaking of pictures,
 Speaking of a strip of black velvet
 Crossing a girlish woman’s throat,
 Speaking of the mystic music flash
 Of pots and sprays of roses,
 “Nothing lovelier, nothing lovelier.”

Published in Smoke and Steel
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