Bethlehem

[saw]

took a tour of Bethlehem Steel, my brother and I
wanted some firsthand information, snapshots
of this place synonymous with blue collars, this plant
that spewed rusty-red dust on all the cars in the parking lot

this place where our father spent half of his life,
so the tour guide said, let's go....and I never heard
another word, just furnaces blasting, monorails squealing
concussions, clanking, distorted faces, sweat, Dante's Inferno

had come to life, the guide was moving his mouth , pointing
to the machinery of hell and smiling like he was real proud
of this torture chamber, the Marquis de Sade showing his sex tapes
my brother speaks to me but I can't hear a single word

I drift away in consideration of all the double shifts
the old man worked, sixteen fucking hours here
repeatedly for 40 years, and I just can't believe it, the sacrifice
hits me like a hot piece of slag dropped inside my pants

we walk out into the sunshine speechless.....it's over for us.

[the mingo]

[quote... and I just can't believe it, the sacrifice ...[/quote]

my father worked in a paper mill - it was no foundry but he wasn't there because he enjoyed it -
Thx, saw -

[mnaz]

The Industrial Revolution was hellish.

[saw]

I think a lot of this industrial work stole our fathers......shift work, no one ever gets used to

sleeping in the hot day, with kids running around, impossible to rest....then back at it...

we never went to bed hungry, a real sacrifice to make that happen....my father saw

numerous people get killed, and somehow it never ended up in the Baltimore Sun

my father retired when he saw a twenty something fall into a vat of acid