[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Poem for the Working Class

[Karen Aram]

96.

John Hancock Center 1967

Dad
Got summer job
Chicago Public Beaches Lifeguard
Visions of girls, sun, sand
Dancing through my head
17

Son, don’t take that job!
Have something lined up for you!
Sounded ominous
Sure was!

Most heavy duty construction work
John Hancock Center
Bottom of The Hole
In trenches with mud and water and dirt and slime
Installing 4 and 5 inch electrical conduit
From ComEd Main feed
Backbreaking labor
8 hours a day
Covered in mud and dirt and slime and sweat
From hair on my head to bottom of my steel tipped boots

Having pulled himself up by bootstraps
Wanted me to know what it was like for Men
Working by sweat of their brows to support their families
Not look down my nose at them
Show respect
Sure did!
Later AFL-CIO Union Officer
3 years
Helping them out as lawyer

Two months into this purgatory
Sought reprieve
Dad
Started out with Gang of 25 Journeymen electricians
All quit or been fired but me
Son, if you quit or you’re fired
Don’t come home!
He meant it

Soldiered on till end of August
Time to return to high school
Illegal for me to work that job under 18
Dad the Lawyer cum Marine pulled strings
To stick my face into that Hole
Wanted to build character
Sure built a Character!

End of last day
Went over to his law firm
Covered in mud and dirt and slime and sweat
From hair on my head to bottom of my steel tipped boots
What are you doing here?
Just finished summer job
You are taking me out to dinner!
He laughed
Ok! Let me get my hat

Walked across LaSalle Street to Henrici’s
Famous Upscale Downtown Chicago Restaurant
Good evening Mr. Boyle, said Maître D
Good evening Joseph, said he
Joe scanned me up and down
Looking down his nose at me
Violating dress code obviously
Dad chuckled
This is my Brother!
Right this way gentlemen

Could not believe it!
Called me His Brother to another Working Man
Highest Compliment in his book
Worth three months of backbreaking work
In the mud and the dirt and the slime and the sweat
Covered from hair on my head to bottom of my steel tipped boots

Not easy growing up as oldest child and namesake
Of Marine Corps Combat Veteran
Invading Saipan, Tinian, and Okinawa
Hard as his steel bayonet
Killing large numbers of Japanese soldiers
Hand to hand combat
No regret
As he saw it
They had it coming for Pearl Harbor
And killing so many of his Buddies
His Comrades-in-Arms
On the Beaches and in the Jungles of the Pacific

Elite Marine Corps Killer
Proud of it!
Till the day he died
Not as tough as my Dad
Thank Heavens for that!
But he raised me tough enough

To fight!
For the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden of the world
Against the rich, the powerful, and the famous
Against States
Against Governments
Against Empires
My Poems Against The Empire!



Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (phone)
217-244-1478 (fax)
(personal comments only)

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