two years, ten years, and …
people ask what place is this?
ask where are we now?
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
Grass by Carl Sandburg as published in Cornhuskers (1918)
Yesterday I stood in history or maybe, stood on history.
I was on the front steps of the United States Customs House in downtown Savannah, Georgia.
The building opened in 1852.
The building is kitty corner to the Savannah City Hall on Bay Street and it was on Bay Street, on December 21, 1864, that General William T. Sherman reviewed his Army of the Tennessee after the March to the Sea that started in back in Atlanta, Ga on November 15th.
In the sketch of the event, General Sherman is in front of the old City Hall building and there across the street, is the once again, UNITED STATES Custom House.
In the pictures of me taken yesterday, I am in front of that self same building, 161 years later.
On the steps of history.
Then this morning I was reading an article about the restoration of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
That building has been in place … since 1100.
Oh …
Before that my morning Bible reading was in the book of Judges and the story of Samson.
Samson, the feller who fell for a girl who lived in … Gaza.
Samson is thought to have been a Judge back in 951–931 (BC).
Oh …
Still, I was sitting on granite steps that had first been sat on 175 years ago.
That’s not bad for the New World.
Two years?
Ten years?
175 years?
Almost 1,000 years?
3,000 years?
What place is this?
Where are we now?
Let the grass work and who would remember?
No Haiku For You 