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Joy

by Carl Sandburg, 1916

Let a joy keep you.
 Reach out your hands
 And take it when it runs by,
 As the Apache dancer
 Clutches his woman.
 I have seen them
 Live long and laugh loud,
 Sent on singing, singing,
 Smashed to the heart
 Under the ribs
 With a terrible love.
 Joy always,
 Joy everywhere—
 Let joy kill you!
 Keep away from the little deaths.

Published in Chicago Poems
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