| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922. |
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| V. Mist Forms |
| 28. Paula |
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| NOTHING else in this song—only your face. | |
| Nothing else here—only your drinking, night-gray eyes. | |
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| The pier runs into the lake straight as a rifle barrel. | |
| I stand on the pier and sing how I know you mornings. | |
| It is not your eyes, your face, I remember. | 5 |
| It is not your dancing, race-horse feet. | |
| It is something else I remember you for on the pier mornings. | |
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| Your hands are sweeter than nut-brown bread when you touch me. | |
| Your shoulder brushes my arm—a south-west wind crosses the pier. | |
| I forget your hands and your shoulder and I say again: | 10 |
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| Nothing else in this song—only your face. | |
| Nothing else here—only your drinking, night-gray eyes. | |
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