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Below the Sawmill
Towering o’er the hunchback man
Steam driven arms thrust and clank
A vault of toil, deafening, dank
The ceiling shakes a cable snakes past creosoted beams
Once tall and lean, now bent unclean of sweat and steam
The old man sweeps
A small dark room of bench and broom
From where he sweeps to earn his keep
A place I still see in my sleep
Long ago there was a crack, and a cable took as cables do
When cables snap, the shortest route from me to you
Steel breaches flesh and bone
Doctors mend what doctors can
And though he’s bent, it’s left unspoken
A lucky man he is, for he’s not altogether broken
And the leaders of the company in all their generosity
Show their binding loyalty, but nothing ever comes for free
An offer made is accepted
A wife a child and bills to pay
And so beneath the grand machine
A wife a child and bills to pay
And so beneath the grand machine
He works to keep the basement clean
Above his head, steam pressure makes the mighty head rig lunge
Teeth of saw blades tear the air, and into timber plunge
Slabs of hemlock feed the mill
And sawdust falls between the cracks
Just as he has, to the floor below, to a life hollow
A life bent and crooked hard to swallow
Dirt blackened face and empty eyes, into the broom he leans
I walked in green, just a teen, sent below the mill to clean
When I came upon the hunchback man
RJ Moody 2009
barçalunacy says:
How beautiful.
Is this a true story?
Moody says:
Thank you for your nice comment.
The poem is as rough as the subject matter, and I don’t know yet if I will try to edit it or not, but yes it is true. I was sent under the saw mill with a chainsaw to cut loose some fallen logs, when I first saw the man in this poem. I was 18 years old. We watched each other, but never spoke. It was so loud I doubt we could have heard each other anyway.
I learned of his circumstance from one of the other old-timers there. The next year he and the steam engine were gone, and I worked for two days with a pick, axe, and bar to tear out the timbers and heavy wood foundation that supported the old engine, which was replaced with a modern electric engine. Two years later the entire mill was torn down.
barçalunacy says:
Thanks for your reply.
I've re read it several times, in fact, I've copied it to my notepad.
I really like your description 'cause it exudes strong feelings and emotions and I don't have to dig so very deep to understand and react.
Maybe tweak as you wrote (I could never ever suggest for I know not how to) but use the KISS principle for ordinary folks like me.
See ya!