THE stone goes straight.
A lean swimmer dives into night sky,
Into half-moon mist.
Two trees are coal black.
This is a great white ghost between.
It is cool to look at.
Strong men, strong women, come here.
Eight years is a long time
To be fighting all the time.
The republic is a dream.
Nothing happens unless first a dream.
The wind bit hard at Valley Forge one Christmas.
Soldiers tied rags on their feet.
Red footprints wrote on the snow...
...and stone shoots into stars here
...into half-moon mist to-night.
Tongues wrangled dark at a man.
He buttoned his overcoat and stood alone.
In a snowstorm, red hollyberries, thoughts,
he stood alone.
Women said: He is lonely
...fighting...fighting...eight years.
The name of an iron man goes over the world.
It takes a long time to forget an iron man.
... ... ...
... ... ...
Poetry Atlas has many other poems about Washington.
This poem appeared in Sandburg's collection, Slabs of the Sunburnt West.