a man leaves his post & his body takes over
       

& then more bodies & more—

no sky no job no god no authority—

just breath, the great ruler—

& a moment in a concrete warehouse
is everything—

& the bodies of the steelworkers
weld into one—
& the city of questions sleeps—
& the steel flakes in the lungs speak
& the outside law falls null & void—

when my father punches out his foreman at the mill:
awake in himself—

the summer my father taught me fire.

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Copyright © 2022 Jan Beatty All rights reserved
from Kestrel
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission