Steel plates, beams and castings come together in the factory to form assemblies, then frames, and finally trucks. It always fascinated me to watch it happen--plates and beams moved into place by fork trucks to be bolted into assemblies, assemblies hanging on chains from overhead cranes, gliding slowly through the air, until all met at the welder's station. Some of the trucks they made could carry a 400-ton payload. I wondered how the welders felt, holding the power to make such an incredible machine.
Building Trucks
This skeleton I shape
Will soon be clothed in strength
To haul a hundred tons of stone
Gouged out of the mountain.
Now it hangs in pieces
Bound with chains,
Hollow pieces revealed
Joints unfashioned,
Awaiting the touch of fire
From my hand.
copyright 2011
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