FRED VOSS

One Swing of a Fist

Ignacio
is back in the factory
tying his thick rubber apron around his waist and sliding his big safety goggles across his nose
tending the big vat full of stinking boiling solvent
that de-greases to shiny smoothness the steel or aluminum or brass parts we machinists cut
a fight
with Roger who ran the big punch press in the corner of the factory
got Ignacio suspended for 2 weeks
Roger
is gone from the factory forever because he started the fight and threw the first punch
that smashed Ignacio’s safety glasses and cut Ignacio’s cheek
we heard it was a fight about a forklift wheel rolling across a compressed air-hose
in factories fights start
over stolen 1/8-inch Allen wrenches blueprint lines un-swept metal chips
one nut tightened one turn too tight one wrong look one wrong word
and careers and wives and houses are lost and lives
turned upside-down
and we welcome Ignacio back
with fist-knocks and slaps on his back knowing
with rising rents and healthcare costs and children living at home into their thirties and exhausted
working wives and barroom shootings and American democracy teetering on the brink
we could all
lose our tempers
and our jobs
with one swing of a fist
and Ignacio tightens the rubber apron around his waist
and adjusts the safety goggles on his nose
and the big straw sombrero on his head and thinks of his beautiful wife
and his 7-year-old daughter and smiles
and turns to go back
into the Clean Room and his vat of steaming stinking solvent
that gives him his life
as we all think of Roger
too old to get another job
too young to retire
and shake our heads
and turn to our machines and put our hands around their steel machine handles
hoping
we can keep our hands gripping and turning those steel handles
for 5 or 10 or 20 years more
instead of closing them into fists
that wreck
our lives.

Fred Voss has had three collections of poetry published by Bloodaxe Books (UK), the latest of which, Hammers and Hearts of the Gods, was selected as Book of the Year 2009 by The Morning Star (UK) and was reprinted by Pearl Editions (Long Beach, CA). It is available on Amazon, along with his first novel, Making America Strong.