My hope is a brown black yellow white people

My life is a gray slate black room packed full of roar

My blood is high Wil swings the sledge the core drives

My muscles sing we swing the roll white as heat

My bones jar the roll falls home we tape it on

The units thunder as the slow night wears on

These men dirty with oil ink sweat are a star

There is no letup neither in cold nor heat

There is the dance, we dance for we are people

That which we know we do, the pattern drives

The floor trembling Ding cleans rollers in the roar

Perry shouts toothless words sucked into the roar

Mel and me jog Steve straps tosses the lift on

The paper skims over the folding board drives

Onto the knife the folder hammers a star

Into each. Wil whips one flat: the news people

Will read tomorrow. His hands feel its birth heat

.     .     .     .

It is unusual, this silence, though the heat

Still rises waves the air but the machine's roar

Is gone. We sit and eat. Past the dock people

Going in to work look up say hi move on

Wil smokes. Perry laughes we laugh. Above a star

Struggles to shine. The sun soon blazes and drives

Across the bridge in silence, sleepy, Steve drives

Workers, banners, papers piled in back. Heat

Already soaks us my stomach is a star

That throbs: for blocks away we can hear the roar

We park unload hands grab the bundles and on

We march to join and are lost among people

Our flag is red we shout for we are people

We stand our ground when the cops and horses drive

The hoses slam then with their clubs they come on

Wil falls Ding shields Perry with his back. A heat

Lifts me up my voice an unexpected roar

Justice justice justice my people my star

Martin, Ilyich, Chris, Che, people: in mine's heat

Or city's cold, thirst drives us forward we roar

Past our dead we press on: justice, banner, star

Mychal Simonian

author's note: It might help to know the following jargon:

jog: (verb) to straighten printed matter out when it exits an automated folder

lift: (noun) a bundle so jogged, usually 25, 50 or 100 units

strap: (verb) to tie up a bundle of lifts using a strapping machine