Droning metal clanging against unyielding metal
Softer sounds of flesh connect, hard packing sounds
Dry like burlap on pavement, fist against chest
This is the hours I waste away, a path, a u-turn
Native sons without illumination, graveyard shift
Rusty once oiled bearing hissing a dull melody
Buzzing into my heart and telling me static
Every night is the same song, radio volume
Across a vase sits empty, no plants here
Only brackish foul water occupies
The water seems to have it right, this place
Slow decay, a filth you cannot get clean from
Silica in you lungs, iron in your flesh
It's brave new world a pinnacle of industry
One whose hothouse smog surrounds you
The smell gives a nauseous tinge even in this
My second year hardened palate, choke
Migraines waft in like the scent of molten iron
Forged in heat, on hot humid summer nights
Compounding scrap,iron,pig,coke,flesh,sweat
To build New, to make quotas, to give praise
To oil fields, and automobiles, the American way
My way, the flow of money, the scent of blood
My blood,sweat,soul all in that hutch, perspiring
For a paycheck, for things I can’t afford
For ways of life I cannot sustain
This is what it feels like at 5 a.m.
This is how the sweltering humidity tastes
Iron mixed with dust and rust.
The water looks just a bit greyer
So do I
July 21 2005, 01:02:14 UTC 6 years ago