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Home  »  Smoke and Steel  »  10. Weeds

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922.

IX. Haze

10. Weeds

FROM the time of the early radishes

To the time of the standing corn

Sleepy Henry Hackerman hoes.

There are laws in the village against weeds.

The law says a weed is wrong and shall be killed.

The weeds say life is a white and lovely thing

And the weeds come on and on in irrepressible regiments.

Sleepy Henry Hackerman hoes; and the village law uttering a ban on weeds is unchangeable law.