6 Cornhuskers
21 lines✦
ut of prairie-brown grass crossed with a streamer ofwigwam smoke—out of a smoke pillar, a bluepromise—out of wild ducks woven in greens andpurples— Here I saw a city rise and say to the peoples roundworld: Listen, I am strong, I know what I want. Out of log houses and stumps—canoes stripped fromtree-sides—flatboats coaxed with an ax from thetimber claims—in the years when the red and thewhite men met—the houses and streets rose. A thousand red men cried and went away to new placesfor corn and women: a million white men came andput up skyscrapers, threw out rails and wires, feelersto the salt sea: now the smokestacks bite the skylinewith stub teeth. In an early year the call of a wild duck woven in greensand purples: now the riveter’s chatter, the policepatrol, the song-whistle of the steamboat. To a man across a thousand years I offer a handshake.I say to him: Brother, make the story short, for thestretch of a thousand years is short. —
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