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Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
1878-1967

"Aprons of Silence"
(1920)

 

    Many things I might have said today.
    And I kept my mouth shut.
    So many times I was asked
    To come and say the same things
    Everybody was saying, no end
    To the yes-yes, yes-yes,
    me-too, me-too.

    The aprons of silence covered me.
    A wire and hatch held my tongue.
    I spit nails into an abyss and listened.
    I shut off the gable of Jones, Johnson, Smith,
    All whose names take pages in the city directory.

    I fixed up a padded cell and lugged it around.
    I locked myself in and nobody knew it.
    Only the keeper and the kept in the hoosegow
    Knew it – on the streets, in the post office,
    On the cars, into the railroad station
    Where the caller was calling, "All a-board,
    All a-board for ... Blaa-blaa ... Blaa-blaa,
    Blaa-blaa ... and all points northwest ... all a-board."
    Here I took along my own hoosegow
    And did business with my own thoughts.
    Do you see? It must be the aprons of silence.

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