Men

Tom's been on the job 3 months, still smiles, can't shut up about
       precision with which he runs machines.

Klem was born in Lithuania, Germans cut off his military schooling
       & gave him choice to work or fight for Germany, labored in
       Lithuania, Brazil, & Argentina, for railroad in Pennsylvania,
       speaks 6 languages, looks like T.S. Eliot with muscles, wife
       may be dying of swollen neck glands in hospital where doctor
       don't promise nothing, & they rob you in broad day.

Israelis chased Abe the Arab from his home where he had 22 date
       trees 6 miles west of Jerusalem, he crawls into machine
       whenever it malfunctions & quickly fixes it, thinking about
       divorcing his pregnant wife who believes he is having an affair
       with her cousin, & shows me every consideration when I make
       boxes for him, demonstrating with hands each shorn a finger
       to second digit.

Harris speaks only to black men, only snaps at me when has to,
       gray specter tinctured dark brown.

Sam thinks being Polish is a joke on him, smiles in round layers of
       fat, reaching across circle to grab hot plastic with cotton
       gloves, setting up huge 18 below.

Groundhog Benson banged his head & opened pouring hole, blinked
       twice, & sd 2 shots wd fill it, followed by 2 beers.

Ken eats candy bars & swells noiselessly over rebelling nerves.

James Lee Johnson's a giant black boy once walked from Wisconsin
       31 cents in pocket, to find he'd lost a job, too tired this last
       month to lift weights at home.

Woody says he has 3 years of law school & is worth $165,000,
       housepainter 37 years, retired & took this job to not relax,
       can't keep hands off me trying to demonstrate quick cuts of
       razor thru thick film among jerking oily rotations.

Pete's wife of 19 years left him to run away with motorcycle gang,
       now brags of his lover met in tavern & callousness to wife,
       broke-hearted, fading white smoke, foreman, disappearing
       before my eyes.

Warrior Mike, West Side gang Aristocrats, hit Puerto Rican kids
       with baseball bats, 3 years combat Vietnam stoned all time,
       loves to fight, wanna fight, motherfucker? we drink some
       beers 63rd & Cicero, mornings, driving home.

#1484, shift 3-D, midnight till morning, polyethylene division,
       Chicago plant, earning some money, I quit.


Gandhi and Chance

        Gandhi weighed less than 100 lbs
when I was born
          wore garment round lower vitals
of cloth he'd spun
            while thinking
                        how to move people
through slag of inert idea & outrage
                          with song & firm step
               along dusty roads
                              in hot suns
    taking chances among desperate unknowns.

    By chance
      I found out about him
  & delved into his doings
            3rd floor downtown Chicago
        Public Library
              traffic blaring
  through Prudential Bldg shadow
              under flocks
          of Grant Park pigeons
                    years after
                  his death
            & still his focused life
                          drives me

      though he's dead
          & Woody Guthrie's dead
    & several unknowns of the species
                I've encountered
      who've died many times since
                  myself
                    & live to testify.