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Home  »  Smoke and Steel  »  5. Shirt

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922.

III. Broken-Face Gargoyles

5. Shirt

MY shirt is a token and symbol,

more than a cover for sun and rain,

my shirt is a signal,

and a teller of souls.

I can take off my shirt and tear it,

and so make a ripping razzly noise,

and the people will say,

“Look at him tear his shirt.”

I can keep my shirt on.

I can stick around and sing like a little bird

and look’em all in the eye and never be fazed.

I can keep my shirt on.