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Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Carl Sandburg

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

The Naked Stranger

Carl Sandburg

IT is five months off.

Knit, stitch, and hemstitch:

Sheets, bags, towels, these are the offerings.

When he is older, or she is a big girl,

There may be flowers or ribbons or money

For birthday offerings. Now, however,

We must remember it is a naked stranger

Coming to us; and the sheath of the arrival

Is so soft we must be ready, and soft too.

Knit, stitch, hemstitch, it is only five months.

…………

It would be easy to pick a lucky star for this baby

If a choice of two stars lay before our eyes—

One a pearl-gold star and one pearl-silver—

And the offer of a chance to pick a lucky star.

…………

When the high hour comes

Let there be a light flurry of snow,

A little zigzag of white spots

Against the gray roofs.

The snow-born all understand this as a luck-wish.