Places of the Railroad Steel
Places of the Railroad Steel
By Joshua Chalifour
A pool shines
in all the old gravel and
a frog's forelegs beat
tracks in the shallow squdge.
Tens of crows
are clear of air.
The dark feathers are
their recurring black sliver
before trying places.
They celebrate a March festival
and they pigeon pink reels
by white snow-piles.
A bug sits on thin spiderwebs,
his melody is an April gone.
With his washing-fives, came a hand,
and these are frogs—
they might plutter blue pools.
People ask "Who somersaults my past?"
and I just shine a "go."
Just Before April Came
By Carl Sandberg 1
1 Carl Sandburg, “Just Before April Came,” in Smoke and Steel (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1920), http://archive.org/details/smokesteel00sandiala.
The snow piles in dark places are gone.
Pools by the railroad tracks shine clear.
The gravel of all shallow places shines.
A white pigeon reels and somersaults.
Frogs plutter and squdge--and frogs beat
the air with a recurring thin
steel sliver of melody.
Crows go in fives and tens; they march their
black feathers past a blue pool; they
celebrate an old festival.
A spider is trying his webs, a pink bug sits
on my hand washing his forelegs.
I might ask: Who are these people?