New hires, new boots, new contract
every four years, Buck holding a 10 lb. steel skimmer, scalding
the mustache from Viking's scabby face.
Metal on metal, machinery cranking
and pounding, hammering out the bolts, turning
company scum, telling you to do it,
or don't, McDonald's is hiring, the smell of
burning clothes, singeing knuckles,
copper thieves hiding in the orchards,
twisting crane cables. Don't touch the block.
Don't close the damper. Don't run the voltage down.
When everything goes open circuit, melting shields,
let it all smelter with the carbon exploding in the channel.
Forget the wall switch. Unhook the air gun's rubber
hose, breathing dead air in the courtyard,
holding the tapping list, holdover list, day-off list,
re-tap list, re-sets, revolver
cocked in the mouth of a cheater, violating
restraining orders, shared custody rights,
swing shift, night shift, day drunk, shapeshifting
your weight off the bad knee, bad hip,
bungled shoulder, thirteen arm pins, broken tarsal,
to the good side, good eye, good morning,
Uncle Al, go fuck yourself. Going broke
with a job, flying to Reno on a long weekend,
Jack Deuce, all in, this ain't your daddy's farm,
non-random drug tests, two-days pending, emergency
surgery, watching metal being syphoned, all silvering,
translucent, upside down, hanging by a phantom limb
forever, the taste of iron inside my mouth.