4. Cornhuskers
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n the city among the walls the overland passenger trainis choked and the pistons hiss and the wheels curse. On the prairie the overland flits on phantom wheels andthe sky and the soil between them muffle the pistonsand cheer the wheels. I am here when the cities are gone. I am here before the cities come. I nourished the lonely men on horses. I will keep the laughing men who ride iron.I am dust of men. The running water babbled to the deer, the cottontail,the gopher. You came in wagons, making streets and schools, Kin of the ax and rifle, kin of the plow and horse, Singing Yankee Doodle, Old Dan Tucker, Turkey in theStraw, You in the coonskin cap at a log house door hearing alone wolf howl,
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