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Trafficker

by Carl Sandburg, 1916

Among the shadows where two streets cross,
 A woman lurks in the dark and waits
 To move on when a policeman heaves in view.
 Smiling a broken smile from a face
 Painted over haggard bones and desperate eyes,
 All night she offers passers-by what they will
 Of her beauty wasted, body faded, claims gone,
 And no takers.

Published in Chicago Poems
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