She tells me through the vent
from the cell below
that they’re taking her
on the morning train to the pinta,
that the guards have already packed
everything but her sheets,
blue jumpsuit, and towel
Through the floor,
with my heart as with an eye,
I can see her as she sits
on the bunk, face
cupped in her hands,
elbows propped on her thighs,
cheeks smudged by fingermarks
and tears, her dark
hair eclipsing her knees.
I try to reassure her
with wisdom I do not have,
and hope I try to fake,
that the hammer
and anvil of coming days
will forge us into
something stronger.
By the time they unlock
my cell at breakfast,
she has already gone. But later
as I walk back in my boxers
from the shower, an older guard,
the kind one, slips a note
into my hand, whispers,
She sent her love. Back in my cell
I unfold a note that says
Te amo siempre in crude letters
formed by a finger menstrual blood.
--William Aberg
The Listening Chamber, used with permission.
University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, 1997
On the Line
On the line at the packinghouse
you laughed, cursed, told stories
your earrings swinging
hands flying
we played “Beat The Clock”
night after night.
Chicago Gary Texarkana Mississippi
Monterey Laredo & Laos
we stood together
our hands
in constant motion against the cold
bent over in our white coats
moving boxes and more boxes
racing against the conveyor belt
‘til our eyelids were stuck at half-mast.
Together we cried
together we laughed
together we tried to set things right.
We were dogged
until we quit, got fired
or were bought-off – & then laid off.
But just by coming together
the world lost much of its ugliness.
After surviving
The Wrath of Karen
& the Saturday Night Speed-Up
never again
would we look at other people
struggling like us
as enemies, aliens or freaks:
assuming co-workers asking where we live
are trying to pry into our business
crossing the street & averting our eyes
when we see people picketing downtown hotels
or lined up
outside the Harbor Lights emergency shelter.
--Lucy Duroche
Blue Collar Review
Winter 2006
www.partisanpress.org
Note: Poetry published in past issues is not archived on this website. Request back issues of the print edition at pa-service@politicalaffairs.net.
