| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Cornhuskers. 1918. |
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| 36. Child Margaret |
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| THE CHILD Margaret begins to write numbers on a Saturday morning, the first numbers formed under her wishing child fingers. | |
| All the numbers come well-born, shaped in figures assertive for a frieze in a child’s room. | |
| Both 1 and 7 are straightforward, military, filled with lunge and attack, erect in shoulder-straps. | |
| The 6 and 9 salute as dancing sisters, elder and younger, and 2 is a trapeze actor swinging to handclaps. | |
| All the numbers are well-born, only 3 has a hump on its back and 8 is knock-kneed. | 5 |
| The child Margaret kisses all once and gives two kisses to 3 and 8. | |
| (Each number is a bran-new rag doll … O in the wishing fingers … millions of rag dolls, millions and millions of new rag dolls!!) | |
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