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Corn Hut Talk

by Carl Sandburg, 1920

Write your wishes
   on the door
   and come in.

 Stand outside
   in the pools of the harvest moon.

 Bring in
   the handshake of the pumpkins.

 There’s a wish
   for every hazel nut?
 There’s a hope
   for every corn shock?
 There’s a kiss
   for every clumsy climbing shadow?

 Clover and the bumblebees once,
 high winds and November rain now.

 Buy shoes
   for rough weather in November.
 Buy shirts
   to sleep outdoors when May comes.

   Buy me
 something useless to remember you by.
   Send me
 a sumach leaf from an Illinois hill.

   In the faces marching in the firelog flickers,
 In the fire music of wood singing to winter,
 Make my face march through the purple and ashes.
 Make me one of the fire singers to winter.

Published in Smoke and Steel
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