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LABOR POEM OF THE WEEK
BARKING A FEW LINES
I am starting not to cringe
when the supervisor
walks toward my machine
I am starting
to stand up tall again without feeling
like I'll be beaten down
a dog's
ears stand up when its spirit is unbroken
6 months gone from that sweatshop in downtown L.A.
beaten down
by an owner and a supervisor and I can take a deep breath
and think again
at this new job
like I am a human being who has a right
to take a deep breath
and think
stand around and stroke his beard for a minute
because he feels like it
I cannot stick up my ears like a dog
so this poem will have to do
sticking up proudly
at that owner and that supervisor who tried
to break me
see
I am stroking my beard
taking a deep breath
thinking of a poem again at this new job
instead of desperately racing from
machine handle to machine handle
like I did in your sweatshop for 5 years
I lift this pen the way dogs lift their ears
bark
run around in circles a few times
leaping
for joy
Fred Voss; an American poet and novelist who wrote about the lives of American machinists working in factories for over forty years.
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