The Factory
By Sean Riley
The workers begin to file in
as the sun peaks over the horizon.
Their faces sag like melted wax
as they shake loose from their dreams
strolling through centuries
with the weight of their future on their backs.
When the bell rings its humdrum song
the workers know where it is they belong.
The jobs are separated by generations,
from toddler to adolescent they work together
but are individually compared and measured,
as if a labortory creation.
Standards are set to certain degrees
as if success can be created from only one recipe.
Each day the workers are rigorously tested
After being drilled time and again
hour after hour until the day’s end,
and knowledge walks away uncontested.
The plight of these workers is not new
and the problems aren’t so fixed we can’t undo
but the reins are tightening down.
To travel the same path would lead us further astray
and the hope for success would simply fade away,
so we must tear this factory to the ground.
