earth note 125

bicycling across neville island pennsylvania

it isn't easy
coming to terms
with abandonment
steel fabricating plant hollowed out
like a ghost town
leaving droopy sheet metal extensions
scattered empty locker rooms & clothes racks
overhead crane runways
disconnected from the body

i used to walk those runways
scared shitless of height
out to stranded motor controls
a meter and tools stuffed around me
usually tons of load
hanging
between lifting or lowering
i'd figure out a way of completing the lift
and then getting a crane ride to the exit ladder

our strike in the mid 1970s
didn't last but a few weeks
the injustice of working
way below
basic steelworker wage levels
brought out solidarity even from
electricians welders fitters
even crane operators

haven't taken a hard look
at that shell of a plant
for over thirty years
green brush growing up around
once-black corrugated steel siding
rust chunks dropping
from the i-beams
stain the earth forever

i'm still listening for distant voices
coalescing near the tracks
rooftop hide-outs
out from a patchwork of shade
a surge
at the river's edge

--- e b bortz