Cornhuskers/Joliet

by Carl Sandburg

JOLIET

On the one hand the steel works.

On the other hand the penitentiary.

Sante Fé trains and Alton trains

Between smokestacks on the west

And gray walls on the east.

And Lockport down the river.

Part of the valley is God's.

And part is man's.

The river course laid out

A thousand years ago.

The canals ten years back.

The sun on two canals and one river

Makes three stripes of silver

Or copper and gold

Or shattered sunflower leaves.

Talons of an iceberg

Scraped out this valley.

Claws of an avalanche loosed here.