The Day the Mill Killed Larry McCormick

After Our Valley by Phillip Levine.

And the men who carved a living from it,
only to find themselves carved down to nothing, 
came pouring out of the mill
and into the arms of their wives.

The evenings in each shag-charpeted living room
looked like paintings in some dreary Americana.
The kids, all bowl-cuts and thick-rimmed glasses,
made model trains and let the cartoons spray colors onto their faces while
dad sat in the kitchen with mom
and a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels,
though the cup in his hand was sweating onto his dirty fingers
and the whiskey was already watery from the ice.

A body cannot support 1,242 lbs of steel
when it’s dropped on it
and a 12-year-old cannot support
a family. Not even Jack McCormick
who is known to be the toughest kid in 7th grade
and didn’t even cry when he got the news
about his dad.

It was August. There had not been an accident since October.

The tradition of man sat in his tradition of home
and looked at the mill on the horizon,
massive and silent�" the God of Seneca Valley.

Mom always dreamed that the land was fertile,
that her gardens grew and our house
was circled by pines or poplars.
She dreamed Seneca Valley was really a valley,
Instead of the slab of empty
that was our town. A gas station.
Two cemeteries. A school. The mill.
She wanted grass instead of dust.

We were neither east nor west
and sat heavy with the knowledge
that this was the life 
parents work to save their children from. 

Reviews

[dieuxsansculte]

Two cemeteries and one school. If that doesn't speak of death then nothing can.

There is an anguish and a sense of desolation about this piece that I can't shake off because it reminds me of the direction we've been headed for a long. long time. I feel like I've been watching a train wreck for the last 40 years.

I went and read "Our Valley" by Phillip Levine, too. I can see where you get your inspiration from it, but I think I appreciate yours more. The pain and depression of the parents who "work to save their children" is almost palpable.