Looking For Carl Sandburg

Looking for Carl Sandburg almost one hundred years after your Chicago apologetic i am searching for century-old signs of the city rushing to see them in a few too-short days when it is bundled in cloud and rain and mist and fog but the bold Big Shoulders are still there braced against that famous wind cocooning the brash and brazen young man defiantly declaring the city as a titan of industry but still on street corner after street corner the polite poor sing to the city jangling coins in paper cups pauper islands in a luxurious sea of business – industry – culture almost one hundred years on looking for signs of your city i finally sense a shadow of you sauntering down a grey sidewalk in the mist and fog your charcoal coat open – flapping in the wind your grey-white hair swept sideways in that gentlemanly style yet you are only almost visible like a water-thin reflection or a film of clouds backlit by the inconstant moon your steel eyes ponderous your lips a solid line the words to call your name are as much an apparition as you disappearing around the corner a wraith in the mist