(revised August 30th, 2018)

Courtesy of one or more tradesmen,
       the first Monday
     in September set aside
especially honoring employees
     dedication, gratification, honing
     job duties till
     second nature inculcation...
     evidenced by being

     able, eager, ready
     and willing to acquire money
     maybe marry a groom or bride,
climb corporate ladder, or
     become an artisan,
     entrepreneur, laborer, technician
     (to side step ascending
     stair weigh heavily

     rung out, drafted
     like an oxen plow,
     commandeered and chide
did by management as insubordinate
     nonetheless ironically feted
     receiving glazier plaques
     acknowledging career employee
     deserved retirement, whence joining

     kiln fields once died)
from over exertion, yet nonetheless
     sweat of brow efforts praise,
     aye worthily corroborated, espied
searching me noggin
     and Google, sans a brief history
     re: aforesaid day,
     where barbecues fried
dispersed aromas recognizing efforts

     of workers with
     quality control as guide
grievances against rod need
     danger field challenged      
     sense and sensibility and/or      
     against excessive pride and prejudice
     stalwart did not hide
the shenanigans took place inside

     warranted unprintable colorful prose
     smoky boardrooms linkedin
     tandem fouled nose
     just common every
     day highs and lows    
trading Jane's and/or Joe’s
who weathered extreme temperatures,
     whereby bodies froze,

but thanks to those,
     who battled elements
     at large and snatched a doze
birth of brute efforts eventually
     earned reserved renowned
borne a couple shy
     of the nineteenth century,
     whence the sound

of industrial silence replaced
     with parades, where
     hoof beats did Ezra pound
the burgeoning, and
     bustling city streets
     echoed along the hardened ground
where fealty to country soldered
     with faith, federation union freedom,

     and job security
     did thence abound
which holiday under
     went transformations
     as bustle and hustle
paved the land of milk and honey –
     from straining of muscle
whereby life, liberty and pursuit

     of happiness less
     of a physical tussle
set (via masons), the
     cornerstone to an invisible
     complex edifice originally
     from New York
     those forgotten builders,
     farmers, machinists, unskilled labor

     et cetera whose dis shoveled
     spades laid groundwork
wrought by destruction
     from the Civil War
     bean counters largesse and pork
loosed from the bottle
     in Antebellum South,
     when off flew the cork

freeing a genie,
     which became supreme
     in the court
     such as (the no longer
     remembered) Robert Bork!