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By the Hook

David Waite

there were two men working in the grinder room
pulling logs with metal hooks
to send down the line for newspaper, comic books

heavy coats to keep out the cold
twenty outside and forty-five in
with the wind pushing through the boards of the wall
so cold even the logs froze through

one man gets lazy at hooking logs
and chips them with his sappy tool,
a method the old guys use
that they were all warned against;
today the blade bounces and dives into his hand
cold iron in a naked palm

the way they work, they keep their head down
wait out the five hours until a break
so the wound goes unnoticed by one man
while the other rubs his hand on his undershirt
blood soaking to his belly skin

he turns to the other man
says I got myself, need to go to the Mill Doctor
the iron smell rising despite the cold
the other man looks over and turns white, oh no he cut his guts
thinking of the pierced small intestine, sprinkled with rust

the man with the cut walks to the doctor
tells him of the man who passed out beside him
the foreman shuts down the line

my father still has the scar inside his left thumb
and the image of a man filled with despond
falling to his knees, too shocked to blink or scream
the other man has the nightmares of blood and rust
a metal worm creeping through an open belly
with cold and wood all around him



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