Pennsylvania
from Smoke and Steel (1920)
by Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

I have been in Pennsylvania, 
In the Monongahela and Hocking Valleys.

In the blue Susquehanna 
On a Saturday morning 
I saw a mounted constabulary go by, 
I saw boys playing marbles. 
Spring and the hills laughed.

And in places 
Along the Appalachian chain, 
I saw steel arms handling coal and iron, 
And I saw the white-cauliflower faces 
Of miner's wives waiting for the men to come home from the day's work.

I made color studies in crimson and violet 
Over the dust and domes of culm at sunset.