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Slants at Buffalo, New York

A FOREFINGER of stone, dreamed by a sculptor, points to the sky.  
It says: This way! this way!  
 
Four lions snore in stone at the corner of the shaft.  
They too are the dream of a sculptor.  
They too say: This way! this way!          
 
The street cars swing at a curve.  
The middle-class passengers witness low life.  
The car windows frame low life all day in pictures.  
 
Two Italian cellar delicatessens  
           sell red and green peppers.          
The Florida bananas furnish a burst of yellow.  
The lettuce and the cabbage give a green.  
 
Boys play marbles in the cinders.  
The boys’ hands need washing.  
The boys are glad; they fight among each other.        
 
A plank bridge leaps the Lehigh Valley railroad.  
Then acres of steel rails, freight cars, smoke,  
And then … the blue lake shore  
…Erie with Norse blue eyes … and the white sun.

Cornhuskers. 1918.

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