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Rusty Crimson

by Carl Sandburg, 1920

(Chirstmas Day, 1917)


THE FIVE O’CLOCK prairie sunset is a strong man going to sleep after a long day in a cornfield.

 The red dust of a rusty crimson is fixed with two fingers of lavender. A hook of smoke, a woman’s nose in charcoal and... nothing.

 The timberline turns in a cover of purple. A grain elevator humps a shoulder. One steel star whisks out a pointed fire. Moonlight comes on the stubble.

 “Jesus in an Illinois barn early this morning, the baby Jesus... in flannels...”

Published in Smoke and Steel
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