| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922. |
| |
| V. Mist Forms |
| 24. Remorse |
| |
| THE HORSE’S name was Remorse. | |
| There were people said, “Gee, what a nag!” | |
| And they were Edgar Allan Poe bugs and so | |
| They called him Remorse. | |
| |
| When he was a gelding | 5 |
| He flashed his heels to other ponies | |
| And threw dust in the noses of other ponies | |
| And won his first race and his second | |
| And another and another and hardly ever | |
| Came under the wire behind the other runners. | 10 |
| |
| And so, Remorse, who is gone, was the hero of a play | |
| By Henry Blossom, who is now gone. | |
| |
| What is there to a monicker? Call me anything. | |
| A nut, a cheese, something that the cat brought in. | |
| Nick me with any old name. | 15 |
| Class me up for a fish, a gorilla, a slant head, an egg, a ham. | |
| Only … slam me across the ears sometimes … and hunt for a white star | |
| In my forehead and twist the bang of my forelock around it. | |
| Make a wish for me. Maybe I will light out like a streak of wind. | |
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