If one is accused of an elegiac obsessive writing I suppose being almost 82 is an excuse, but Carl Sandburg couldn't use that as an excuse. A great American poet that Robert has quoted before, from his Chicago poem, Limited. It is the ultimate Ash Wednesday poem though I bet Sandburg never considered it so. I don't feel guilty about stealing Robert's thoughts since he still is my kid. Joan and I went yesterday and received our ashes. The ashes and the poem are worth forty days. You'll have to have your own ashes to last forty days but I can remind you about Carl Sandburg's poem to help you through your own shortcomings.
I am riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains
of the nation.
Hurtling across the prairie into the blue haze and dark air
go fifteen all steel coaches holding a thousand people.
(All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men and
women laughing in the diners and sleepers shall
pass to ashes.)
I ask a man in the smoker where he is going and he
answers: "Omaha."
I am riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains
of the nation.
Hurtling across the prairie into the blue haze and dark air
go fifteen all steel coaches holding a thousand people.
(All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men and
women laughing in the diners and sleepers shall
pass to ashes.)
I ask a man in the smoker where he is going and he
answers: "Omaha."
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