Doors
BY CARL SANDBURG
An open door says, “Come in.”
A shut door says, “Who are you?”
Shadows and ghosts go through shut doors.
If a door is shut and you want it shut,
why open it?
If a door is open and you want it open,
why shut it?
Doors forget but only doors know what it is
doors forget.
Carl Sandburg, “Doors” from The Sandburg Range. Copyright © 1957 by Carl Sandburg and renewed in 1985 by Margaret Sandburg, Janet Sandburg, and Helga Sandburg Crile. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This material may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Source: Wind Song (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1947)