Jane Ellen Glasser
Smithfield Workers’ Testimonial
Shoulder to shoulder in a mechanical line,
we butcher 1,100 pigs an hour into cuts:
loin, chops, ribs, belly, for your dinner.
When the governor of Missouri declared
a state of emergency, our lines shrunk:
8 became 10 became 20 workers
sent home sick. When the company closed
plants in 3 other cities, we worried:
Should we stay home? But in Milan,
a small town of few jobs, losing even
a day’s wages robs food from our tables.
Until they tear, we wear the same gloves,
the same masks. With 15 minutes for break
and 30 for lunch, who among us has time
to wash hands? The plant advertised
a “responsibility bonus” of $500.00
for not missing a shift April 1–May 1,
a sum that would not even cover a funeral.
Now we are told if we stay home
to keep ourselves and our families safe,
we will be fired. We must work to make
a living, but no job is worth a life.
—Submitted on 06/19/2020
Jane Ellen Glasser is the author of Selected Poems (FutureCycle Press, 2019). Her other books on FutureCycle include In the Shadow of Paradise (2017), Cracks (2015), and The Red Coat (2013). Her poems have appeared in Hudson Review, Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Georgia Review, among other journals. She co-founded the New Virginia Review. Online at janeellenglasser.com.
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