Fondue in an Alternator Factory
Fondue in an Alternator Factory
by quasimofo
..the woman with the beautiful brown eyes and unclaspable necklace \
flirts with my alarm bleeps
10 minutes till real time
after the shag stagger coffee morn vanilla
5 sugar spoons.. gulped..
the clothes lose their balance in a bagel hole
hanging in dim dawn dwelling’s
last lynchings—
the era has many errors giving 70’s guitar-rock riffs
true/false multiple testimony of a
mile’s drive clambered trudge
to an indentured clock.
me swiped a caricature with numbers non-numbered..
rolls whisks whizzes strolls
against moving racks of regulator rectifiers
stator rotor diodes pulleys air wrench presses
tons of aluminum
miles of the piles..
on the conveyer
ready for packaging
reluctant redneck supervisors
drawl their depts. of laborers:
spitting whelpkin temps the lifers the retired part-timers..
an old senorita wears perfume in summer mingling steam,
some born-again alcoholics lay down dollars with the bookies,
and lager-head yanks speak eloquent stories while
smokers and washed-up-n-down dieters corner
the pyramid schemers .. a self-proclaimed
asshole ex-minister says
“if you only knew me..â€
which seems to whisper like a slow leak tire
brought to right with a cigarette air pump
every afternoon living after the whistle..
we might be in this to gether
if the on-the-side musician
can get paid more than the cost of gas..
a 2000’s mission statement might infer
you belong to us and the emancipation proclamation is just
another way of converting mechanical habit into electrical energy..
..it’s all honest work for poor people who believe justice
as long as there’s discounts..
As they puff their hammers on sinews made
from snack vendors,,,,,,,, the new lights
casts molds sorts on
the creation that ever catches space
it’s meant for..
some ends meet where there’s refurbished meat, ..
i wipe my feet of tiny metal parts fallen into shoes, …
but oh oh god the wo man
with t he beaut i ful brow n e yes an d
un clasp able neck lace
tells me
she loves me
after
30 years,..
i wipe the dust and ask:
“What’s an alternator?â€
You’re a genius. Do you spew, or do you rewrite? I bet you put 34 times the energy into your poems than I do mine. This is my favorite of yours so far. Love the parts about the drinkers and smokers and the pyramid schemers. I really, really like the ending too, the imagery of wiping dust. bravo!
Thanks! This one did go thru a lot of revision (after considerable spewing)…one of those you have grand ideas for and it kinda fizzles…but you leave it alone for a while and later it takes on new life. I wanted to do a Frank O’Hara ‘impure poetry’ take-off listing sequence of events with guts of life in-between…though much of poem ended up being ‘character sketch’ at this real alternator factory i worked a year and a half.
i worked in tear-down section of plant and came out every day covered in soot and sweat…managed to break down 180 alternators an hour one day which was record…mostly to just feel like a badass or something; there was some machismo involved here; or maybe just exorcising of demons; little bit of everything i suppose.
Girl with brown eyes was a worker there who i was in love with and day-dreamed about. 5 years prior we had worked together at a sandpaper plant across town. I came into work one day and she asked me to help her fasten a necklace she could not clasp…which brought me into close proximity and just stuck in my mind forever. Anyway, i ramble. thanks for comments
Q!
Let’s have lunch Astral Plane and talk, and I can hear more, and you can hear more too. I so appreciate the response you have to my writing. The more of yours I read/see the parallel thought forms in common become more outrageously apparent. Juxtaposition of unlike elements, daily surreality, perspective rarely surveyed with fascination by other beings… “They” consider the view as calamity, disaster, or fever dreaming at the least. Me, I don’t wanna wake up – neither do you! I’d love to be able to make contact on this physical plane somehow. Where can we exchange info of that nature? Tag, you’re “it” Hint: LJMichel.com