"Shirt," a poem by Robert Pinsky

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Shirt, by Robert Pinsky

The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams,
The nearly invisible stitches along the collar
Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians

Gossiping over tea and noodles on their break
Or talking money or politics while one fitted
This armpiece with its overseam to the band

Of cuff I button at my wrist. The presser, the cutter,
The wringer, the mangle. The needle, the union,
The treadle, the bobbin. The code. The infamous blaze

At the Triangle Factory in nineteen-eleven.
One hundred and forty-six died in the flames
On the ninth floor, no hydrants, no fire escapes—

{snip}

Robert Pinsky, “Shirt” from The Want Bone. Copyright © 1990 by Robert Pinsky. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Source: The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966-1996 (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1996)

{snip}

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire happened on this day, March 25, in 1911. There have been several threads about it over the years at DU. For the threads started on the 100th anniversary, see:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/archives.php?date=2011x3x25

[Achilleaze]

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