I. CHICKENS <br /> <br />I am The Great White Way of the city: <br />When you ask what is my desire, I answer: <br />"Girls fresh as country wild flowers, <br />With young faces tired of the cows and barns, <br />Eager in their eyes as the dawn to find my mysteries, <br />Slender supple girls with shapely legs, <br />Lure in the arch of their little shoulders <br />And wisdom from the prairies to cry only softly at <br /> the ashes of my mysteries." <br /> <br /> II. USED UP <br /> <br /> Lines based on certain regrets that come with rumination <br /> upon the painted faces of women on <br /> North Clark Street, Chicago <br /> <br /> Roses, <br /> Red roses, <br /> Crushed <br />In the rain and wind <br />Like mouths of women <br />Beaten by the fists of <br />Men using them. <br /> O little roses <br /> And broken leaves <br /> And petal wisps: <br />You that so flung your crimson <br /> To the sun <br />Only yesterday. <br /> <br /> III. HOME <br /> <br />Here is a thing my heart wishes the world had more of: <br />I heard it in the air of one night when I listened <br />To a mother singing softly to a child restless and angry <br /> in the darkness.<br /><br />Carl Sandburg<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/poems-done-on-a-late-night-car/
