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Gary Stein

Factory Man

I'll take a factory with chimneys and smoke
A place with equipment and whistles and hope
Why would I care for white collar work
And waste my life trying to clerk
Give me iron castings gray and sure
Easy to covet and feel secure
Give me a drill a lathe and a mill
They're solid and true and follow my will
What use for a life of troubled ease
If all that's received will barely please
Factory work is a god - it's dictums to keep
No tossing and turning falling asleep
Office jobs want shirts and ties
Symbols of slavery in my eyes
Ulcers and migraines and strange maladies
Follow hours of boringly tedious analyses
Even science with its wonderful thoughts
Gives no comfort but makes you distraught
Could a missing TA in your DNA string
Cause an attack of gout or that cardiac thing
Don't care for bacillus and mutated genes
Have no interest in minuscule things
No time to waste on matters so small
What solace bring they spring summer and fall
Quarks and neutrons and cruddy black holes
Amuse me not for I've grown too old
No visions of worm-holes in outer space
Or other diversions from my workplace
I'll take iron castings all gray and sure
Easy to covet and feel secure
Give me a drill a lathe and a mill
They're solid and true and strengthen my will