Mask by Carl Sandburg
TO have your face left overnight Flung on a board by a crazy sculptor; To have your face drop off a board And fall to pieces on a floor Lost among lumps all finger-marked —How now? To be calm and level, placed high, Looking among perfect women bathing And among bareheaded long-armed men, Corner dreams of a crazy sculptor, And then to fall, drop clean off the board, Four o’clock in the morning and not a dog Nor a policeman anywhere— Hoo hoo! had it been my laughing face maybe I would laugh with you, but my lover’s face, the face I give women and the moon and the sea!
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