A job

Building boats. . . $3.25 an hour

         spraying glue and fiberglass

         great steaming threads of it 14 feet long

mephitic lumps and puddles
         on faultless fabrics before me

                    beautifully wrapped bulkheads
                                     insanely inflexible

          installed in hull and deck.

Michael P. Smith is a poet who survived a dreadful upbringing in Spokane, WA & now lives in Seattle, WA.