Tag: factories

Rock Paper Scissors by Keith Inman

rock
Keith Inman

Gary clipped the measuring tape
on his coveralls, bit the pencil,
and started cutting.  Sparks flew.

Someone yelled over his shoulder
about safety glasses.
He laid the grinder down, checked the cut,
pulled his glasses on,
and stood up.
“Afternoon, sir. What brings you
to our section?”

A General at ease, the VP gazed around
the plant.
“You know Gary.  My father used to say,
‘Eat your supper son.
People are starving in China.’  Now,
they have brand new factories over there,
and do twice the work for half the pay.  And what is that
you’re building?   It looks like a trailer.”

“Ah, this thing?  Nah.  It’s a…
An overhead bracing system for the ah…
lime tank we’re repairing.”
The VP nodded, “Where’s your unit leader?”
“Interpolating fuel numbers at the depot dock.”
A smile spread across his face, “Hope I don’t
see your car pulling that brace around
any time soon.”
“You definitely won’t sir.”

Simon climbed the stairs as the company car
pulled away, and racked his clipboard
on the wall of stats.  “What’d he want?”
“Nothin.”
“You didn’t tell him about my trailer, did ya?”
“Nope.  But, it’ll be ready tomorrow.”

Source: John B. Lee (comp.) Arborealis: A Canadian Poetry Anthology, 2018.  Toronto: The Ontario Poetry Society, 2018.

Rock Paper Scissors is the Winner of the third prize of the Ontario Poetry Society contest.  Inman’s poem Figure Eights, also featuring Gary, won the first prize in the same contest.  and his poems Crewed  and Rally each was a winner of the Judge’s Choice award in the same contest.

Declared a ‘people’s poet’ by John B. Lee and Dr. Elspeth Cameron, for his blue collar style, Inman’s work has earned him a variety of grants and contest awards. A first chapbook, Hanging on a Nail, with two other Niagara Poets at Sigilate Press, sold over 500 copies. And a first Trade book, The War Poems: Screaming at Heaven from Black Moss Press, received a review from Canlit #223, who compared his work with Atwood and Itani. Keith lives and writes in Niagara. 

 

Figure Eights by Keith Inman

keith
Keith Inman

Jesse held the ladder as the heat of machinery
whirled with production.

A shower of grit fell on his head.

Overhead, Gary rustled about
on the rack of pipes near the ceiling,
one foot resting on the top rung,
the other kicked free.

“Hold the fricken thing steady.  If I fall,
I’m fallin’ on you.  Where was I?  Oh yeah.
Lost the house last strike,” his hammer
rang steel.  He took another swing and clipped
the wing of a bracket as the ladder twisted, pulling
out of Jesse’s hand; a jilted
dance partner doing a stilted, stiff-legged step
across ice
it bowed
into the cogs
of the machine.

Mangled aluminium whirled
down the gears like a thrown skater.

Alarms pealed, the machine
chewed to a stop.

Gary’s feet swung high above Jesse’s head.
“We better get our story straight.”

Source: John B. Lee (comp.) Arborealis: A Canadian Poetry Anthology, 2018.  Toronto: The Ontario Poetry Society, 2018.

Figure Eights won the first prize of the Ontario Poetry Society contest.  His poem  Rock Paper Scissors  won the third prize, and his poems Crewed  and Rally each was a winner of the Judge’s Choice award in the same contest.

Declared a ‘people’s poet’ by John B. Lee and Dr. Elspeth Cameron, for his blue collar style, Inman’s work has earned him a variety of grants and contest awards. A first chapbook, Hanging on a Nail, with two other Niagara Poets at Sigilate Press, sold over 500 copies. And a first Trade book, The War Poems: Screaming at Heaven from Black Moss Press, received a review from Canlit #223, who compared his work with Atwood and Itani. Keith lives and writes in Niagara.