by Amanda McLeod
What I learned at the factory
That summer I packed Pampers
for the south bound Erie Lackawanna
sneakers glued to worn concrete,
a swarm floating inside my head,
earplugs clogged the warehouse rattle,
Emmy Lou on my lips,
promise of Gennie with the boys
at the Tombstone on our way home.
They put me on the manual line
after I failed with the self-loaders.
Line down, pyramid of paper boxes.
I was steady then, caught
the rhythm of assembly,
three at a time—scoop, press, load—
deep into the night.
Across the line, Marshall
told how he left the land,
sold his cows. Milk prices,
corn yields. What he gave up
for a paycheck sure as sun
coming in the barn window.
He missed light at the end of the day,
clink of stanchion, sweet smell of hay,
swish of cat, haze in the barn’s depths.
His wife didn’t miss those cows one bit.
Twenty years later, Marshall owns stock.
Retired long ago, he drives a golf cart
around his fields each day, too lame
to walk. His wife watches TV.
They eat out most nights – the Pink Apple,
or the Fireplace, but Farmer stares over
the river right where the trees are sparse,
remembers his cows when the sun drops.
Ellen Stone advises a poetry club at Community High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan where she taught in the public schools and raised three daughters with her husband. Ellen co-hosts a monthly poetry series, Skazat! and is a co-editor of a new literary journal, Public School Poetry. Her poems have appeared recently or are forthcoming in Midwest Review, Third Coast, Cold Mountain Review, and About Place. Ellen is the author of The Solid Living World (Michigan Writers’ Cooperative Press, 2013) and What Is in the Blood (Mayapple Press, 2020). Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Ellen’s website: www.ellenstone.org.
Amanda McLeod is an author and artist based in Canberra, Australia. A passionate nature advocate and citizen scientist, she’s often outdoors when she’s not creating in her studio. Her work has appeared in many places both in print and online, more recently The Big Issue and Meniscus Literary Journal. She loves coffee and quiet places. She’s on the socials against her better judgment, always at @AmandaMWrites.