I ASKED the Mayor of Gary about the 12-hour day and the 7-day week.
And the Mayor of Gary answered more workmen steal time on the job in Gary than any other place in the United States.
"Go into the plants and you will see men sitting around doing nothing-machinery does everything," said the Mayor of Gary when I asked him about the 12-hour day and the 7-day week.
And he wore cool cream pants, the Mayor of Gary, and white shoes, and a barber had fixed him up with a shampoo and a shave and he was easy and imperturbable though the government weather bureau thermometer said 96 and children were soaking their heads at bubbling fountains on the street corners.
And I said good-by to the Mayor of Gary and I went out from the city hall and turned the corner into Broadway.
And I saw workmen wearing leather shoes scruffed with fire and cinders, and pitted with little holes from running molten steel,
And some had bunches of specialized muscles around their shoulder blades hard as pig iron, muscles of their fore-arms were sheet steel and they looked to me like men who had been somewhere.Gary, Indiana, 1915.

Society, the nectarous drenched **** of gregarious giving.
Or so we think..
One must be diligent to not consume to the point of overweening upon her intoxicating milk.
"You can be anything" she coos delicately stroking your forehead.
My bleary scruffed state prevents me from feeling her venomous *****.
I am rendered limp set agog by the hypnagogic melody of society.
Then there is you...
Your Wild renegade eyes pry me from my cemented prison.
Your Voltaic energy seeped in the poetry that coats my marrow and enamel, the substance of my soul.
Such beauty estranged from society? How can that be?
Was this matronly epicenter all farce and rigamarole?
I clamor in search for those eyes to appease my pain.
I search in vain..
until I face the mirror.
Those eyes belong to me, the remedy to society is the awakening of yourself, the claiming of your poetry.

(1) "Gimme" cap(billed cap with a manufacturers name on it-
        found at truck stops" everywhere.)
(1) Pair of bibbed, denim, overalls (with enough pockets to carry who knows what!)
(1) Folding Buck Knife with 3" razor-sharp blade
(1) Pair of scruffed boots(with steel toe - in event the knife is dropped)
(1) Batch(more than three) hardwood tree limbs(pre-trimmed)18" long
(1) Park Bench(seats at least three)-Strategically placed in front of the
      county courthouse, or other municipal facility
(1) Bottomless bag of stories, tales, yarns, opinions, etc.

Blend together, stir frequently, START WHITTL'N! ENJOY the DAY!!
(Weather is not a factor)

copyright: richard riddle-February 09, 2015