During college breaks
Knowing a lot of politicians
My mother always found me a job
I filled in for regular workers
Who took time off for vacations
At the US. Rubber Reclaiming Plant
A blue collar factory job
Worn rubber tires have a second chance
To become car mats, mud flaps, wiper blades

I got a punch card
Was assigned to Eric
A former boxer whose face
Had been rearranged
As well as some brain tissue

You one of those college boys?he jabbed
Follow me
A towering figure with upper arm muscles
Threatening to burst from shirt sleeves
A barrel chest and neck
We walked to five railroad box cars
Filled with worn truck tires

He tossed them out like Frisbees
While I loaded them on pallets
I kept up for the first hour
Soon fell behind

Hey college boy, you tired already?
I’d broken a sweat
My polio arm limp
The torture continued
Until the fork lift driver came by

Look at college boy. Work too hard for you?
Follow me.
I was escorted to an easier job
The cracking room where tires were pulverized
Throw them tires into the grinder.
Stand back. Keep your arms away.
We lost a guy once who got sucked in.

Terrified, I pitched tires into the teeth
Of two giant shiny silver rollers
That gobbled a tire in seconds

At break time the toilet
Is dirty, filthy, smelly
Fifteen short minutes that first day
No safety glasses or hard hat back in 1959
I couldn’t wait for the fall season to begin
Where I carried text books as light as feathers