Random Thought

A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any more
   than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green
   stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see
   and remark, and say Whose?
Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the
   vegetation.
Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I
   receive them the same.
And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

— Walt Whitman

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