Friday, February 2, 2018

Chicago


Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's 
Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe 
them, for I have seen your painted 
women under the gas lamps luring the 
farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I 
answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the 
gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply 
is: On the faces of women and children 
I have seen the marks of wanton 
hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to 
those who sneer at this my city, and I 
give them back the sneer and say to 
them:
Come and show me another city with lifted 
head singing so proud to be alive and 
coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of 
piling job on job, here is a tall bold 
slugger set vivid against the little soft 
cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for 
action, cunning as a savage pitted 
against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, 
laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing 
as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs 
who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is 
the pulse, 
and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling 
laughter of Youth, half-naked, 
sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, 
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player 
with Railroads and Freight Handler to 
the Nation.

~ Carl Sandburg

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