Ambulances
Their sirens overpowered
the mill’s wildest percussions,
ram’s horns, shofars,
stirring the flocks.
Our fears tunneled back
to the last gruesome sacrifice …
Devin’s brains exposed
after his fall.
Curt, flattened by a massive machine,
hoses spraying away
blood and bone.
Not again!
Not again!
Between the sirens and the dread,
resignation ceded to action:
our vow,
the right to a safe job,
pursued and accomplished
in mutuality,
good works.
Ambulances are screaming
in the body politic.
We tunnel back to prior horrors.
Did the same wagon of martyrdom
haul George, Renee and Alex?
Not again!
Not again!
Between the sirens and the dread.
another solemn vow:
the right to be treated as humans,
pursued by millions,
blaring like a shofar
in the streets,
in the courts,
in electoral combat.
Between the sirens
and the nightmares,
mutuality,
good works,
Demanded
as never before.
Len Shindel began working at Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrows Point Plant in 1973, where he was a union activist and elected representative in local unions of the United Steelworkers, frequently publishing newsletters about issues confronting his co-workers. His nonfiction and poetry have been published in the “Other Voices” section of the Baltimore Evening Sun, The Pearl, The Mill Hunk Herald, Pig Iron, Labor Notes and other publications. After leaving Sparrows Point in 2002, Shindel, a father of three and grandfather of seven, began working as a communication specialist for an international union based in Washington, D.C. The International Labor Communications Association frequently rewarded his writing. He retired in 2016. Today he enjoys writing, cross-country skiing, kayaking, hiking, fly-fishing, and fighting for a more peaceful, sustainable and safe world for his grandchildren and their generation. Shindel is currently working on a book about the Garrett County Roads Workers Strike of 1970 www.garrettroadstrike.com.