Among the Red Guns

Among the red guns,
 In the hearts of soldiers
 Running free blood
 In the long, long campaign:
   Dreams go on.

 Among the leather saddles,
 In the heads of soldiers
 Heavy in the wracks and kills
 Of all straight fighting:
   Dreams go on.

 Among the hot muzzles,
 In the hands of soldiers
 Brought from flesh-folds of women—
 Soft amid the blood and crying—
 In all your hearts and heads
 Among the guns and saddles and muzzles:

   Dreams,
 Dreams go on,
 Out of the dead on their backs,
 Broken and no use any more:
 Dreams of the way and the end go on.
Among the Red Guns

by Carl Sandburg, 1916
