poetry Triangle-Shirtwaist-Baldia 1911, 2012

At the 104th anniversary of the Triangle Fire in New York City, poet Tom Karlson reminds us that factory tragedy remains a real issue in the global garment-making industries.

Tom Karlson Desert Peace
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Triangle-Shirtwaist-Baldia 1911,  2012 

doors chained
exits blocked

!fire!

the elevator buckles,
fire-escape collapses
women roast or leap

their bodies,
smashed, shattered
sculpted by fire or the fall
charred pick-up sticks
counted, named, mourned
by lovers and family

146 workers
laid out
on that sidewalk morgue
an unwanted mausoleum
lined with
tear and blood and a desolate dream
this mass death births law,  unions,
strikes,  reduced profits

the factories abandon the city
the law of maximum profit rules
riding the air-slip of gluttony, and greed
pigs after truffles
suits hunting surplus value
vampires, of the eighty-hour work week
medicated by NAFTA

union maids, law, labels, and lady liberty
are renditioned, shackled
flying Air America to points
south then east

and finally Baldia town, Pakistan
one hundred and one years from Triangle
the traveling factory, this profit making monster
with windows, doors
yes locked, barred

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!fire!

314
bones broken never to love
blackened lungs never to sing
crushed skulls never to read
broken feet never to dance 
three hundred fourteen dreamless bodies
never to live, to weep, to laugh

Tom Karlson says poetry and song are his weapons in the fight against injustice.
He sings with the NYC Labor Chorus.