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Home  »  Cornhuskers  »  72. Medallion

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Cornhuskers. 1918.

72. Medallion

THE BRASS medallion profile of your face I keep always.

It is not jingling with loose change in my pockets.

It is not stuck up in a show place on the office wall.

I carry it in a special secret pocket in the day

And it is under my pillow at night.

The brass came from a long ways off: it was up against hell and high water, fire and flood, before the face was put on it.

It is the side of a head; a woman wishes; a woman waits; a woman swears behind silent lips that the sea will bring home what is gone.