Carl Sandburg

Dynamiter

I SAT with a dynamiter at supper in a German saloon
    eating steak and onions.
And he laughed and told stories of his wife and children
    and the cause of labor and the working class.
It was laughter of an unshakable man knowing life to be
    a rich and red-blooded thing.
Yes, his laugh rang like the call of gray birds filled with
    a glory of joy ramming their winged flight through
    a rain storm.
His name was in many newspapers as an enemy of the
    nation and few keepers of churches or schools would
    open their doors to him.
Over the steak and onions not a word was said of his
    deep days and nights as a dynamiter.
Only I always remember him as a lover of life, a lover
    of children, a lover of all free, reckless laughter
    everywhere—lover of red hearts and red blood the
    world over.
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