I WAS a boy when I heard three red words
a thousand Frenchmen died in the streets
for: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity-I asked
why men die for words.
I was older; men with mustaches, sideburns,
lilacs, told me the high golden words are:
Mother, Home, and Heaven-other older men with
face decorations said: God, Duty, Immortality
-they sang these threes slow from deep lungs.
Years ticked off their say-so on the great clocks
of doom and damnation, soup and nuts: meteors flashed
their say-so: and out of great Russia came three
dusky syllables workmen took guns and went out to die
for: Bread, Peace, Land.
And I met a marine of the U.S.A., a leatherneck with a girl on his knee for a memory in ports circling the earth and he said: Tell me how to say three things and I always get by-gimme a plate of ham and eggs-how much?-and-do you love me, kid?
(Carl Sandburg)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, God Poems, War & Peace Poems, Home Poems, Mothers Poems, Memory Poems, Liberty & Freedom Poems, Immortality Poems, Duty Poems, Equality PoemsBased on Keywords: threes, ticked, meteors, decorations, marine, frenchmen, mustaches, and-do, sideburns, say-so