| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922. |
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| IV. Playthings of the Wind |
| 18. Killers |
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| I AM put high over all others in the city today. | |
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| I am the killer who kills for those who wish a killing today. | |
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| Here is a strong young man who killed. | |
| There was a driving wind of city dust and horse dung blowing and he stood at an intersection of five sewers and there pumped the bullets of an automatic pistol into another man, a fellow citizen. | |
| Therefore, the prosecuting attorneys, fellow citizens, and a jury of his peers, also fellow citizens, listened to the testimony of other fellow citizens, policemen, doctors, and after a verdict of guilty, the judge, a fellow citizen, said: I sentence you to be hanged by the neck till you are dead. | 5 |
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| So there is a killer to be killed and I am the killer of the killer for today. | |
| I don’t know why it beats in my head in the lines I read once in an old school reader: I’m to be queen of the May, mother, I’m to be queen of the May. | |
| Anyhow it comes back in language just like that today. | |
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| I am the high honorable killer today. | |
| There are five million people in the state, five million killers for whom I kill | 10 |
| I am the killer who kills today for five million killers who wish a killing. | |
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