| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Chicago Poems. 1916. |
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| 18. Muckers |
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| TWENTY men stand watching the muckers. | |
| Stabbing the sides of the ditch | |
| Where clay gleams yellow, | |
| Driving the blades of their shovels | |
| Deeper and deeper for the new gas mains | 5 |
| Wiping sweat off their faces | |
| With red bandanas | |
| The muckers work on .. pausing .. to pull | |
| Their boots out of suckholes where they slosh. | |
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| Of the twenty looking on | 10 |
| Ten murmer, “O, its a hell of a job,” | |
| Ten others, “Jesus, I wish I had the job.” | |
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