HOTEL GIRL

CARL SANDBURG

TIME is a sandpile we run our fingers in and play for fun.

Nellie came from Alabama; she had a special laugh when people looked twice at her skin and hair; she knew the guess and the suspicion; it was a pair of old dancing slippers in the garret of her memory.

Time is a sandpile we run our fingers in. . . .

Nellie worked in a factory and earned $22 a week and paid for her board and had no time for fun; Nellie got a job in a hotel at $22 a month and board; she is free from 3 p. m. to 7 a. m.; she goes to vaudeville with traveling men; she sings, "I'm Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die."

I said: I shall search out a majesty in the fabric of this drab; there is a running crushed purple in a bunch of grapes under a wagon wheel; there is a purple here.

Time is a sandpile we run our fingers in. . . .