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IN Abraham Lincolns city, | |
Where they remember his lawyers shingle, | |
The place where they brought him | |
Wrapped in battle flags, | |
Wrapped in the smoke of memories | 5 |
From Tallahassee to the Yukon, | |
The place now where the shaft of his tomb | |
Points white against the blue prairie dome, | |
In Abraham Lincolns city
I saw knucks | |
In the window of Mister Fischmans second-hand store | 10 |
On Second Street. | |
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I went in and asked, How much? | |
Thirty cents apiece, answered Mister Fischman. | |
And taking a box of new ones off a shelf | |
He filled anew the box in the showcase | 15 |
And said incidentally, most casually | |
And incidentally: | |
I sell a carload a month of these. | |
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I slipped my fingers into a set of knucks, | |
Cast-iron knucks molded in a foundry pattern, | 20 |
And there came to me a set of thoughts like these: | |
Mister Fischman is for Abe and the malice to none stuff, | |
And the street car strikers and the strike-breakers, | |
And the sluggers, gunmen, detectives, policemen, | |
Judges, utility heads, newspapers, priests, lawyers, | 25 |
They are all for Abe and the malice to none stuff. | |
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I started for the door. | |
Maybe you want a lighter pair, | |
Came Mister Fischmans voice. | |
I opened the door
and the voice again: | 30 |
You are a funny customer. | |
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Wrapped in battle flags, | |
Wrapped in the smoke of memories, | |
This is the place they brought him, | |
This is Abraham Lincolns home town. | 35 |
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