Men
Tom's been on the job 3 months, still smiles, can't shut up about
precision with which he runs machines.
Klem was born in Lithuania, Germans cut off his military schooling
& gave him choice to work or fight for Germany, labored in
Lithuania, Brazil, & Argentina, for railroad in Pennsylvania,
speaks 6 languages, looks like T.S. Eliot with muscles, wife
may be dying of swollen neck glands in hospital where doctor
don't promise nothing, & they rob you in broad day.
Israelis chased Abe the Arab from his home where he had 22 date
trees 6 miles west of Jerusalem, he crawls into machine
whenever it malfunctions & quickly fixes it, thinking about
divorcing his pregnant wife who believes he is having an affair
with her cousin, & shows me every consideration when I make
boxes for him, demonstrating with hands each shorn a finger
to second digit.
Harris speaks only to black men, only snaps at me when has to,
gray specter tinctured dark brown.
Sam thinks being Polish is a joke on him, smiles in round layers of
fat, reaching across circle to grab hot plastic with cotton
gloves, setting up huge 18 below.
Groundhog Benson banged his head & opened pouring hole, blinked
twice, & sd 2 shots wd fill it, followed by 2 beers.
Ken eats candy bars & swells noiselessly over rebelling nerves.
James Lee Johnson's a giant black boy once walked from Wisconsin
31 cents in pocket, to find he'd lost a job, too tired this last
month to lift weights at home.
Woody says he has 3 years of law school & is worth $165,000,
housepainter 37 years, retired & took this job to not relax,
can't keep hands off me trying to demonstrate quick cuts of
razor thru thick film among jerking oily rotations.
Pete's wife of 19 years left him to run away with motorcycle gang,
now brags of his lover met in tavern & callousness to wife,
broke-hearted, fading white smoke, foreman, disappearing
before my eyes.
Warrior Mike, West Side gang Aristocrats, hit Puerto Rican kids
with baseball bats, 3 years combat Vietnam stoned all time,
loves to fight, wanna fight, motherfucker? we drink some
beers 63rd & Cicero, mornings, driving home.
#1484, shift 3-D, midnight till morning, polyethylene division,
Chicago plant, earning some money, I quit.
